Wrecked RAF P-40 Kittyhawk found in Egypt

[Ridge]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ra-desert.html

[two shoes]

Love the old planes... Props and taildraggers! Awesome how well preserved... note where the fabric was on the tail feathers...

[sniper7]

very awesome!

[ruthabagah]

I think it's a Tomahawk.... The engine doesn't look like the Packard or Merlin. Looks like a radial engine.... I would say it's a twin wasp. Probably a Tomahawk.

[ruthabagah]

Oops. Never mind, I did not see the updated pic on the original article: It's a Kitty.

[whichfinger]

I think it's a Tomahawk.... The engine doesn't look like the Packard or Merlin. Looks like a radial engine.... I would say it's a twin wasp. Probably a Tomahawk.

wat

The P-40 never had a radial engine, and certainly the ones that flew in North Africa never had a Packard or Merlin. IIRC, the only Packard-Merlins installed in P-40s were strictly for evaluation purposes late in the war, and to my recollection none ever saw combat. P-40s flew in combat with Allison V-12s.

Curtiss' predecessor to the P-40, the P-36 Hawk, did use a radial engine.

[ruthabagah]

wat

The P-40 never had a radial engine, and certainly the ones that flew in North Africa never had a Packard or Merlin. IIRC, the only Packard-Merlins installed in P-40s were strictly for evaluation purposes late in the war, and to my recollection none ever saw combat. P-40s flew in combat with Allison V-12s.

Curtiss' predecessor to the P-40, the P-36 Hawk, did use a radial engine.

Except that the P40F that were never delivered to the French before the capitulation in 1940 had a mix of Radial engines and later a some were adapted to carry the Hispano-suiza 12Y removed from downed airplanes, or surplus stored in Algeria. They were extensively used in north Africa, because they were already adapted to the local conditions.

The first picture on the article can be confusing, but the other ones show clearly a V12 config.

[whichfinger]

Except that the P40F that were never delivered to the French before the capitulation in 1940 had a mix of Radial engines and later a some were adapted to carry the Hispano-suiza 12Y removed from downed airplanes, or surplus stored in Algeria. They were extensively used in north Africa, because they were already adapted to the local conditions.

[Citation needed.]

I was mistaken in that the Merlin was tested and flew in combat before the war ended. But no version of the P-40 ever had a radial engine.

P-40F "This version fulfilled the longstanding wish of the British to fit the P-40 with a Merlin engine (which is what ultimately led to the development of the P-51), but it arrived in combat relatively late and ironically, few of this type made it to Commonwealth units.... P-40F/L variants were supplied to Free French squadrons flying in North Africa."

P-40F "The P-40F was powered by a Packard-built Merlin V-1650-1 twelve-cylinder Vee liquid-cooled engine .... One hundred and fifty P-40Fs were supplied to the RAF under Lend-Lease"

[Irving]

That's dang cool.

[Marlin]

I sure if one had the time and inclination to walk around out there or even the islands of the SW Pacific, you could run across all sorts of stuff.

I remember, about mid 1974, a 49 y/o guy walked out of the Phillipine jungle and surrendered. He just never believe the "propaganda" about the war being over.