Vintage Wings of Canada's Curtiss P-40N-1 Kittyhawk

Vintage Wings of Canada (VWC) is the owner and operator of this beautifully restored combat veteran Curtiss P-40N-1 Kittyhawk (A29-414), which is available for airshows, flybys and film.

The Curtiss P-40 was a development of the radial engined P-36/Hawk 75. The prototype XP-40 was a converted P-36A with the R-1830 replaced with an Allison V-1710-19 liquid cooled V-12. First flown in October 1938, the P-40 was evaluated at Wright Field in May 1939 resulting in an order for 524 aircraft.

Early P-40s were equipped with 2x .50 and 4x .30 caliber machine guns with the .50s mounted above the engine. With the P-40D the engine mounted guns were removed and later P-40s standardized on 6x .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the wings.

Although the P-40 was best known for using the Allison V-1710, the P-40F and P-40L were powered by the Packard V-1650-1 Merlin. The V-1650-1 had a single stage supercharger so it did not have the altitude performance of the P-51 fitted the later V-1650 with a two stage supercharger.

Over 13,700 P-40s had been built by the time production ended in December 1944. Although the P-40 did not have the best performance of its contemporaries, it did have a reputation as a rugged aircraft and it was available when needed.

The Curtiss P-40 was a formidable fighter and ground attack aircraft in the right hands. Employed in theatres from China to New Guinea to the Aleutians to North Africa, P-40 variants had many names including the Tomahawk, Kittyhawk and Warhawk. The Kittyhawk was the name given by British Commonwealth air forces to the P-40E model and subsequent variants.

The P-40 saw action with the Desert Air Force of the RAF in North Africa. Though not a first rate high altitude dogfighter, the Kittyhawk with its long range, bomb load and armour, became a formidable low-level fighter-bomber.

Most know the P-40 as the mount of American General Clair Chenault's Flyng Tigers operating in China against the Japanese at the outset of the war. But, one of the greatest P-40 pilots anywhere was Canada's own W/C James "Stocky" Edwards who flew hundreds of successful Kittyhawk missions with 260 Squadron in the North African campaign. Edwards used his underrated Kittyhawk to shoot down Luftwaffe ace Otto Schulz, one of the most skilled pilots flying a supposed superior aircraft - the Messerschmitt Bf-109F.

Vintage Wings of Canada's is a war veteran and was damaged in a landing accident at Tadji, New Guinea on April 25, 1944while serving with the RAAF 78 Squadron. It was recovered in late 1990, completed a ground-up restoration at Pioneer Aero in Ardmore, New Zealand and Frank Parker took the fighter aloft on its post-restoration test flight on April 23, 2009.

Vintage Wings of Canada's P-40N is painted in the exact Desert Air Force markings of 260 squadron ace James F. "Stocky" Edwards who flew the P-40 throughout the war in North Africa and is Canada's highest scoring surviving fighter pilot with 20 victories and six probables.

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