The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-18

| RfRmMm It were IlOC IOl
 these bombers
 and that goes for the L,ockheet Hudsons, which were not designed as military aircraft, but have beer very effective as light bombers.
 Criticism of the combat planes has been aimed particularly at tht P-40. If that is only 8 meaning. less designation to you, it might bt mentioned that a "P" plane is g pursuit plane, and the number "40' merely indicates that 1t is the for. 1 tieth design which the army has lput into production. Circumstance: which have given this plane its bac name trace back to peculiar chair of events.
 BRITAIN
 BOUGHT BOMBERS
 Before the lease-lend bill was passed, it was against the law tc sell to foreign governments models of planes which were in service in the U. s. armed forces. This meant that when the French and British came to order planes, they had to get models the Army had not adopt ed. Also, they had to get planes which U. s. manufacturers were in a position to deliver The British I took Lockheed Hudsons and made them into light bombers. The French picked on the P-40, an experimental model of 1899 intend ed to be an improvement of the P- 36, the standard U. s. Army equip ment in the old-fashioned days of 1886.
 The French ordered lot of these original P-40's and they put in French gadgets U French radio, French instruments. The throttle was on the wrong side. Norway and Sweden ordered some too. Then France and Norway got knocked out of the picture, and Sweden was blockaded Some of the planes rust ing in Martinique are supposedly P-40's. Delivery of others couldn't be made.
 The British, anxious to get any, thing that would fly, took delivery on all the P-40's they could lay hands on. When they got them, however, they woke up to the fact the shipment was all wrong for British pilots. The radio operated only on French frequencies. The throttle showed forward to increase speed instead of backward. Now those fine points may not seem important to a layman, but to pilot whose every action must be reflex, they are decidedly confus- ing. The British weren't very smart about this, either, if they'll pardon a dirty dig, Instead of training pi- lots to fly them, and mechanics to re-equip them, they let some of the planes lie in crates. From that, the ships began to get a bad name. Along about that time, British production of its own fighters be- gan to accelerate. They didn't need the P-40's, and preferring to use their own production in Britain, which was natural, they shipped the rest of their P-40's to the Mediter- ranean. This was the second point interpreted as an admission that the P-40 was no good.
 STALLED
 AND LOOPED
 The poor old P-4O was really the first low wing, all metal, closed cockpit fighter. It had some faults, as any first model is apt to have. It manifested a little wing tip stall, and it would go into ground loops. Its air scoop f1ared a little, it was not heavily armored by today's standards, but remember, all this was back in the practically pleisto- cene times of 1889, when its 360 miles an hour and multiple machine gun armament were adequate.
 Now the army has habit of put ting Improvements on planes, and whenever an improved model is brought out, they stick a letter of the alphabet after its model num- Der. P-40-A's flying around, and this month the army is to an- nounce a new Curtiss P-40F, which 40 oS AiAN1A O1 dAA AAApAOVClllCkl1 OIl the original old P-40 that. the planes shouldn't be in the same class. And it might be mentioned here that in the way of combat planes the army also has in production models up to Republic PATS, which the British don't have, and represent seevn basic improvements in de- sign after the P-4O. Also, Lockheed P-38's and the Bell Aircobra P-39, both of which can do better than 400 miles an hour.
 The real payon on the P-4O's, however, is that some of the P-4O- As and P-40-B's saw action in Syria where they fought of the Germans.
 Next time anybody tells you the U s. plane factories can't make good pursuit ships, kick him in the britches for a fifth columnist.