I’ve always thought of these three fighters as being ‘the best we had at the time’ with the exception of the Hurricane because the Brits DID have the ever evolving Spitfire…but they all fit into a category of ‘Competent, but not the best’, and they all survived the war doing combat under various guises and providing useful service despite the fact that they could have probably all been phased out and no one would have really batted an eye….I was looking through Stewart Wilson’s excellent ‘Aircraft of WWII’ last night and comparing the numbers on them-performance altitudes, speeds, etc and here’s what I came up with:
Service Ceiling-
P-40E 29,000 ft
Grumman F4F-4 34,900 ft
Hawker Hurricane II series 36,000 ft
Top Speed-
P-40E 362 MPH at 15,000ft
Grumman F4F-4 320 MPH at 18,800 ft
Hawker Hurricane II series 328 MPH at 18,000 ft
All could top the 300 mile an hour barrier but never beat the 400 mph limit, the P-40 being the fastest of the lot…I don’t know anything about the diving characteristics of the Hurricane but do know that the F4F and the P-40 both had great diving capability and used this to effect to get away from Japanese aircraft in combat in a hurry…..a lot of folks tended to like the more glamorous aircraft of the latter part of the war (Spitfire, P-38, P-51, F4U) but the fact is we would’nt have been in the relatively combat worthy shape we were (both the US and Britain) if these earlier fighters had’nt been available in numbers for combat until the ‘bigger and better’ models of fighters had appeared….I for one will NEVER look down my nose at them and will always be glad they were around…both then AND now…
Mark
By: Corsair166b - 2nd April 2005 at 02:31
I did’nt forget the P-39….it just did’nt measure up to these three in my approximation, although it did do its bit in the grand scheme of things, I guess..
I have a photo in John Dibbs ‘Flying Legends’ book of a P-40 and A black Hurricane parked side by side and the accompanying story mentions a British pilot flying against the Yank pilot in a mock combat at about 3,000 feet (so all on the ground could see)….the British pilot seemed impressed with the P-40’s performance and the Yank pilot’s abilities….he goes on to comment “I thought you Yanks were all mouth….you did very well.” But even the Yank pilot seemed to think he would’ve had a lot more trouble with the Hurricane at altitude….so EN380’s comments would probably be accurate.
mark
By: DazDaMan - 1st April 2005 at 12:15
A P40 was tested against a Spitfire Mk1 early in the war, not sure of the outcome though. The testing was undertaken in Canada if I’m not mistaken.
I would think that the Hurricane could out perform the P40 at altitude due to the better supercharger technology of the Merlin engine.
There’s a photo of this Spitfire parked near the P-40 in “Spitfire – The History” (I think). Something tells me the testing was done in the States.
By: EN830 - 1st April 2005 at 11:02
A P40 was tested against a Spitfire Mk1 early in the war, not sure of the outcome though. The testing was undertaken in Canada if I’m not mistaken.
I would think that the Hurricane could out perform the P40 at altitude due to the better supercharger technology of the Merlin engine.
By: Wombat - 1st April 2005 at 10:20
You forgot one
Hi Corsair
I think you have forgotten one other US fighter from the early years which is often overlooked – the P39.
Whilst its performance and range were mediocre (poor even!), it did a lot of hard yards early in the Pacific theatre and the Russki’s put them to very good use.
Regards
Wombat
By: DJ Jay - 31st March 2005 at 05:27
They;re all good.
they all look damn fine
Especially…all of them
P40s are beautiful tho.
Jay
By: Mark V - 30th March 2005 at 20:18
Yes – each one is different, but they all have a lot of charisma and, of course, historical significance. They also all have a different example of some of the important engines of WWII.
By: Corsair166b - 30th March 2005 at 19:52
The planes in question, lest anyone be confused…Hurricane (at left), P-40E (at right), Wildcat (bottom)…
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March 30, 2005 at 7:36 pm