Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, or Warhawk?

David Lee ‘Tex’ Hill calls it the Warhawk…I know cuz I asked him once while near the CAF P-40.

Mark

Have to say the “Tomahawk” is the most pleasing name for me, even though we Americans never used it. By the by, how did the British arrive at their designation system for U.S. sourced/lend-lease aircraft? Tomahamk, Kittyhawk, Martlet, Mustang, Hudson, Maryland, Baltimore, Boston, etc, etc….? Then, why were some U.S. types referred to in their original names like the Hellcat, Corsair, Mitchell, or Aircobra? Just curious as to the reasons. The British have always had a much better flare for naming and painting their aircraft… 🙂

Huh?

And Sh&tehawk doesn’t fit at all!!!

I personally prefer Warhawk because it sounds the most menacing.

Secondly I’d prefer Tomahawk because obviously that word is associated with war and battle.

Kittyhawk just doesn’t sound mean enough to me I guess.

The RNZAF operated P40E’s, K’s, M’s and N’s. From what I’ve read in several books the RNZAF personnel referred to all the models only as the Kittyhawk, despite the Americans calling them Warhawks. Perhaps because our first batches of P40’s came from RAF orders (?).

Yet I have a contemporary source, Contact magazine (the RNZAF’s official magazine) from 1943 in which the article about them calls them Warhawks. So perhaps they were called both here in NZ. A neat article it is, with lots of photos of a P40 squadron making the journey from NZ to the forward area in the Pacific, and they make a comparison to it being like migrating birds.

I prefer Kittyhawk.

The Mohawk was the P36/Hawk 75

What about the Mohawk !!!!!

Hi all Where does the earlier Mohawk fit into all of this?

It’s pretty simple really.

The aircraft was known as the P-40 Warhawk by the Americans. (all variants)

The British called the P-40, P-40A, P-40B, and P-40C (as well as their export equivalents i.e. Hawk 81A) the Tomahawk.

Beginning with the P-40D all the way to the P-40N, the aircraft was known as Kittyhawk.

Kittyhawk IV was the P-40N, while Kittyhawk III equated to the P-40M I believe. The others are a bit confusing so I think the only part that’s truly confusing is which Roman numeral the Brits assigned to the particular variant. Getting the name Tomahawk or Kittyhawk is the easy part.

I used to know it all, but I can’t remember all the numerals at this point.

Tommyhawk. That’s how the Soviets called all their lend-lease machines.

From what I have been able to gather the Americans called them P40’s whilst the British and Commonwealth called them Tomahawks or Kittyhawks. I don’t think that the name Warhawk was used all that much. As always I could be wrong. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Which name do you prefer for the Curtiss P-40 series?

The Americans christened the entire series the Warhawk, while the British used the name Tomahawk to refer to the P-40B/C (and similar export models) while all variants beginning with the P-40D all the way to the P-40N were known as Kittyhawks.

Which do you prefer?

Kittyhawks, sounds better to me. Best to ask all the ww11 pilots what they called them, wonder if they were as confused as us?.

Uh, Hmmmmmmm. This is a tough one. I don’t know what to tell you, I just can’t decide which is my favorite. 😉

I’ve got no real preference, but I’d be interested to see a definitive listing of which name equates to which variant. It’s always left me utterly bewildered…

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

I’ve got no real preference, but I’d be interested to see a definitive listing of which name equates to which variant. It’s always left me utterly bewildered…