Curtiss 'Hawk'
Curtiss ‘Hawk’
One of the new breed of all-metal monoplane fighters designed in the mid 1930s the Hawk promised well but suffered from the endemic problem of the US aircraft industry at that time - lack of a powerful and reliable engine. Overcome in the later marks the Curtiss performed reasonably well in comparison to it’s design contemporaries - Hurricane and Me 109. It’s ceiling of 31,000 ft was a particular advantage over the earlier Me109s which struggled to reach 27,000 ft.
The Curtiss Hawk type saw further development forming the basis for the well-known P40 - Warhawk or, in the RAF, Tomahawk.
The image shows a Curtiss H75C of the French Escadrille Lafayette poised to deal with a pair of unsuspecting ’109s - a composite of airshow photographs and archival skyscape.
One of the new breed of all-metal monoplane fighters designed in the mid 1930s the Hawk promised well but suffered from the endemic problem of the US aircraft industry at that time - lack of a powerful and reliable engine. Overcome in the later marks the Curtiss performed reasonably well in comparison to it’s design contemporaries - Hurricane and Me 109. It’s ceiling of 31,000 ft was a particular advantage over the earlier Me109s which struggled to reach 27,000 ft.
The Curtiss Hawk type saw further development forming the basis for the well-known P40 - Warhawk or, in the RAF, Tomahawk.
The image shows a Curtiss H75C of the French Escadrille Lafayette poised to deal with a pair of unsuspecting ’109s - a composite of airshow photographs and archival skyscape.
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