Reply...
I just downloaded the new P-40B and was immediately disappointed. The 2D panel – well, it’s not the best I’ve ever seen. Then I felt anger. What is it with this bird – why does she still move us so? Is it the that menacing look and that cowl which was begging for sharks teeth? Or is it that she was the underdog. Just a bit outclassed, what a better engine would have solved – is that it? What could have been?
AC
Ali cat,
You can always replace the 2d panel with the one Morton did.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=7f2604cfe3f60274#cid=7F2604CFE3F60274&id=7F2604CFE3F60274!470
But to answer your question...I believe that the P-40 is in some respect the American version of the Hurricane. (Your love of the Hurricane is based largely on her performance in the Battle of Britain) She was rough around the edges, and later outclassed by her enemies, but she was extremely tough, rugged, and highly capable in the hands of a determined pilot.
The Allison V-1710 (the P-39 can also be used here) was a robust engine that was always handicapped by a single-stage supercharger that caused planes that used her to have a rapid performance drop-off after about 4,000 meters. (The early Mustang "A" models suffered from this as well...hence the Merlin)
However, despite her limitations, she performed in a manner which outstripped what was expected of her. Like the Hurricane, she helped to hold the fort when times were at their most bleak. Below 15,000 feet, she could hold her own in North Africa and the Eastern Front against many Axis designs, and fought on well in the hands of the Army for two long years as the Americans clawed their way through the Pacific.
And of course, there's always that little thing called the "Flying Tigers," the American Volunteer Group that fought with amazing success in China. More than anything else, this is what made the P-40 in many ways the embodiment of the American fighting spirit in those dark days after Pearl Harbor.
They tried replacing the Allison with a Merlin in the P-40F model. Despite the performance increase at altitude, the overall performance was marginal. The aircraft was simply past her prime by 1942-1943. The Hurricane and many of the 1935-1937 designed aircraft (Remember, the P-40 is an inline-engined offshoot of the Curtiss P-36 Hawk, a 1935 design) fall into that category. The Spitfire and Messerschmitt are more the exception than the rule in that regard.
...they gave the P-40 a killer rep that lives on in perpetuity. Although it was used by every allied air force and in every theater of WWII, the AVG's success with the P-40 was never matched by others who flew it. And the reality is that it wasn't so much the plane itself. It was the tactics, the savvy and the "winner-take-all" aggressiveness of the AVG pilots who flew them. Unbelievable kill ratios and extremely low accident rates in comparison to other units flying the P-40 and even better fighters. 
