Curtiss P-40

[The Range]

What did they call the Curtiss P-40? Kittyhawk or Warhawk?

[Load Toad]

Depended on the mark - do you have a search engine on your internet...?

Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps adopted for all models, making it the official name in the United States for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants.

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-40_Warhawk#British_Commonwealth_units_in_Mediterranean_and_E uropean_theatres)

[alphacentauri]

I believe it was both. The name changed with the models. Early models were the Tomahawk, then later models were the Warhawk. The final models were called Kittyhawks.

At least that's what I am led to believe. Someone else on here could probably break it down further.

Cheers, Alpha

[Biggus]

As LT said....

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-40_Warhawk)

...not exactly hard to unearth.

[The Range]

I have a search engine, but I don't fully trust Wikipedia. So I wanted to find out from people who really knows.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Why/how on earth would/could Wiki not be accurate on something as basic and factual as that? It isn't as if it's something wacky, contentious or opinion based like mormonism, aromatherapy or Ken Livingstone a credible politician is it?

Quite apart from the other thousand websites that would answer your query just as well...

[Rakshasa]

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how often Wikipedia articles use commonly accepted beliefs as facts when, even a single afternoon of research show them to be false. But then what do you expect from a site that'll happily use newspaper headlines as sources.

The P40 was a development of the P36 Hawk. So Curtiss dubbed it the 'Warhawk'. The British/Canadians then bought large numbers of them in 1939 -40 (as a regular arms sale, NOT Lend Lease.) However, the Warhawk name was unpopular as the War Hawks had been the political faction in the US senate that had pushed President Madison into the War of 1812. The name was changed to 'Tomahawk'.

Later models swapped out the Allison for a Packard Merlin and later a stretched fuselage, these were designated 'Kittyhawk.' That name stuck through the remaining marques.