World War II produced some of the most exotic and fearsome prop-driven fighter planes ever to soar across enemy skies. Curtis was on the scene early with the P-40 all-metal Warhawk fighter that first flew in 1938. An outgrowth of the earlier Curtis P-36, the P-40 was a beautiful plane, but it had no two-stage supercharger which ultimately made it inferior to the Luftwaffe's Me-109. Nevertheless, while waiting for American designers to catch up to other World War II aerial combatants, the P-40 worked hard and fought heroically on several fronts. It is perhaps best known for the service it did in the Chinese theater, where American airmen entered the war against Japan as "mercenary" soldiers and flew the shark-toothed P-40s of the Flying Tigers. But the P-40 also saw service in the Middle East and North Africa as a lend-lease British plane (several had been built for the French, but the French were out of the war) and as an American fighter. A later model, the Kittyhawk, also became the U.S. Army's chief fighter in the Pacific. Music is from Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major."
