Rare Bird

Here's sumthin' super-groovy... Curtiss chief test pilot Lloyd Child takes the first of just twenty-three P-40Ds to be built for a spin in Western New York skies...

Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)

The P-40D was such a major departure from all previous variants of the P-40 that a new model number, 87, was assigned by Curtiss. Although two subsequent variants of the P-40 (the P-40L and early P-40Ns) would leave the factory with only four guns installed, the P-40D was the only Model 87 to have an actual four-gun wing... one of very few commonalities it shared with most of its predecessors.

Here's another shot of a P-40D, possibly the same ship shown above. Clearly visible here is the short carburetor intake on top of the nose, peculiar to the P-40D and some early P-40Es.

Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)

More on the P-40D HERE...


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