P-40 Warhawk - In The Movies

In the movie, "Hellfighters," there were 2 P-40s used by Venezuelan guerrillas before the very end of the film.

Another big strength of the P-40 was it was available when it was needed, while its arguably superior replacements simply weren't. Like the M3 Lee/Grant, it's better to have something decent now to having nothing waiting for something great.

I read, at the time of the filming of the movie Pearl Harbor, that there were only four flying P-40s left. And all four were used in filming that movie. Supposedly two of those P-40s were from the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho. You can therefore guess how that museum got its name. I always wondered why half the flying P-40s in the world ended up in Nampa, Idaho. According to the video there are many more than four flying. I believe the Idaho museum still has both of its P-40s.

As Bruce Willis's illness set in, he was exploited in a number of really poor films. He was at the point where he couldn't remember any of lines, and was essentially just there to be able to add his name to the credits for money. It was quite sad.

As usual, if I had to choose between a P40 with 6 .50 guns or a Zero or ME109, I'd choose the P40. (I'm a Commercially Rated Pilot with Complex A/C hours) There are things Pilots should and do "drum into their heads"...with the P40 it MUST BE the Claire Chenault "order".... DIVING ATTACKS and no dogfighting. Do that and the P40 is vastly superior to either the Zero or 109. I assume flying a P40 would have been similar to flying a Hurricane. KNOW your strengths and AVOID any weaknesses.....DIVING ATTACKS!!!! One and Done....or One and Fly Away and Climb, REPEAT.

For me, P-40 in a movie= Wild Bill Kelso 😂😂

The lack of two stage supercharging for high altitude performance really hurt this plane and the Bell P-39 Airacobra. They were very capable at low altitudes and ground support/attack. Later versions began to catch up to the P-51 and P-47 performance but, late in the war adding additional fighter types to mass production would only complicate the manufacturing and supply chain for needs already covered. Its definitely one of the most intimidating and iconic air frames ever made. Well done JJ.

１９４１

bro had to put in family guy lol

Keren...bahuss sekali

I' m not sure how this works but here goes. The P40 and many aircraft including the early models of P51 mustangs and P 38 lightnings were powered the greatest of all , the venerable Allison V12 , Made in Idianapolis, Indiana. You folks may have heard of us, we have this auto race every year, um whats it called? Oh yeah THE INDY 500! Make fun of hoosiers but yall are welcome to come by anytime good people, good food

To me it looks like a shark and not a tiger

You mention the destruction of the aircraft on the ground in the Philippines

As I understand it, this is a day after the attack on Peal Harbor and thus the US had more warning for this attack.

Known in Australia as the Kittyhawk

I think it was 77 Squadron (maybe 7t) that got delivery of these and had to fly them immediately up to New Guinea and so they got to familiarise themselves with the plans by flying them up to the combat zone

One of my favorite planes to fly in Blazing angels.

We should have centralized on the Packard Merlin V-12 for the P-40, P-38 and P-63.

I love how there’s just a clip from Bo Time Gaming in the mix of these 😂

were a lot of the planes used in the movies the real thing or mocked up stage props? also was the tiger shark paint scheme used outside the flying tiger unit?

Missed several; other films with P-40s in them.

Pearl Harbor, Valkyrie, 1941, all these movies feature our two P-40s (E model & N model) from the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa ID, we are proud to say!

The P-40's used in "The Flying Tigers " were mockups using Ford V-8's for the engines.

The huge success they had against the Japanese planes were slashing attacks. They'd get above the formations and dove into them. Limiting contact. They knew the Warhawks couldnt outfly the Japanese planes. So they used the strengths of the aircraft.

@botimegaming you made it into the video!

Love the flying tigers scenes.

“Wam wam” “termites.”

One peculiar thing about the P-40 - well, at least the P-40E, P-40M, P-40N, but I guess the P-40D as well, to some extent -, was that they had higher real world performance than "as advertised" or is printed in the aviation books even today. That's one almost completely overlooked reason why they were so successful throughout WW2. In context, most in the field WW2 fighters had lower performance than "as advertised" or in the books. Particularly Japanese and Soviet aircraft.
Anyway, Allison released new boost levels for emergency power, for frontline combat during the war. Using those, the in-the-field P-40E would do 345.7 Mph at 2000 ft. Official factory figure is 325 Mph. The over-boosted P-40N would do 367 Mph at 2000 ft. Official figure is 345 Mph. Performance dropped rapidly at increasing altitudes however, just as before, the compressor being too small to keep up the pressure in thinner air, no matter what theoretical pressure you set it to.
The reason the P-40 was not used in the European war, was that the air war in Europe was all about intercepting or escorting bombers, or achieve air superiority against intercepting fighters. That always meant high altitude fighting, something the normal Allison engine couldn't do (the P-38 used custom turbo-superchargers) (the P-40J was a turbo-supercharged variant, but they never bothered to successfully solve the plumbing problem of fitting it to the P-40, so came to nothing). In the Pacific and North Africa the P-40s did rather well though, and wrested air superiority away from Ki43s, Zeros, and won air superiority from Bf109Es and Bf109Fs.

Flying misfits 1976 anyone!🙄

Jman

Japanese ace Saburo Sakai stated that he felt a well flown P-40 was among the most formidable adversaries he faced.

My father was a P-40 pilot. Flight Leader M. W. Kuykendall, DFC, 1st Squadron, AVG.

"Sky Captain" was an awesomely fun movie. Truly underrated.

She’s not as beloved as the Mustang, but she sure is pretty

Great video

It’s amazing that it was considered inferior and overshadowed by other fighters everywhere else during the war… and yet it put an absolute hurt on the Japanese with the Flying Tigers. 297 kills to 4 losses? Good lord it dominated!

Would’ve been more interesting if Pearl Harbor had Rafe in the Flying Tiger instead of the Eagle Squadron.

My Father-N-Law was stationed on Bataan, he said they lost all their P-40's to the Zeros. He said their tactic was, if they heard Zeros were coming, their P-40's would take off and hide in the clouds until the Zeros left. Eventually, the Americans were captured and shipped to Japan.

Nice brief Johnny, I like your style.

Ah yes, the greatest plane on the surface of the earth. And I am not biased, those are straight facts, brothers.

I have flown her on simulation and if that is a true representation then she is far from obsolete. She's like a Hurricane. Tough, excellent armament and very capable. The Merlin engine version is pleasantly suprising. Lots of dead German and Japanese people would say she's an awesome airplane 👍✌️☮️😁❤️

They were very good aircraft, just under powered and under gunned. If they had 8 50 calibre guns instead of the 6 30 calibre the fire power would have been awesome. And like they did with the mustangs replaced them with the more reliable British RR merlin, that would have more of an impact.

Thanks for the kiwi involvement being mentioned.

I'd love a movie all about the fighting in the Philippines in 1941.

Don't forget "God is My Copilot!"

Someone owns a P40 with the shark teeth paint job at the local airfield. It's pretty sweet

You did not mention the movie God is my Co Pilot

😎 Excellent.

What germans used inlines otgerw than naval scouts

Thanks for info!
I wasn't aware the ME110 used the shark head design first which is a marvelous tidbit of knowledge.
The P-40 was a very effective aerial gun platform when it could be deployed in optimal conditions, but like every weapon it has its strengths & it's limitations. Brave & resourceful pilots made up the difference.
The Army Air Corps P-400 & P-39 also made great, though brief, contributions to the Guadalcanal Campaign. I do not know if they ever saw service beyond that or in any other theatre.

It had a great look.
Everyone wants to put teeth on their aircraft- they look their best on the P-40👍