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Character Profiles
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Curtiss
Hawk H-75A
(Profile
contributed by Justin 'LooseCannon' Riggir and Duane 'Packrat' Christensen)
Hawk H-75A-2s
#140 of GC II/5 somewhere in France
A six
gunned Hawk H-75A-2s of GC I/4 in Vichy markings
Fairely Battles of the Advanced Striking Force with an escort of Hawk
H-75A's
Typical Curtiss
Hawk H-75A Specifications
Manufacturer: Curtiss-Wright
Length: 28 ft 6 in
Wing Span: 37 ft 4 in
Height: 12 ft 2 in
Speed: 300 mph at 10,000 ft
Range: 825 miles
Ceiling: 33,000 ft
Armament: six 7.5 mm MAC 1934 mg, two in cowl, four in wings, two
under-wing type A-3 bomb-racks
Engine: Pratt & Whitney R-1830-13, 1,050 hp at take-off
Climb: 1 minute to 3,400 ft
Weight empty/loaded: 4,567/6,010 lbs
The Hawk H-75A began its service life as the Curtiss-Wright Company’s
entry in the 1934 United States Army Air Corps fighter design competition.
The requirement was to re-equip the Army Air Corps pursuit squadrons with
modern aircraft, however there were so many new design features required
of the aircraft for this evaluation that some firms dropped out, and of
the others only Curtiss-Wright was able to meet the fly off deadline.
Eventually, after three competitions, the Seversky design, which was to
become the P-35, was accepted. However the Hawk H-75A was considered promising
enough for the Army Air Corps to purchase several as YP-36 evaluation
models.
Teething problems, especially engine related ones, plagued all of the
new P-35 and P-36 aircraft, which delayed service introduction until the
spring of 1937. The first production model P-36A Mohawk was delivered
in April 1938, thus the advanced designs of 1934 became the 'transitional'
types of 1938. The P-36A Mohawk was the first Army Air Corps fighter to
exceed 300 mph, athough the slightly newer Hurricane and Spitfire were
both faster and better armed. The P-36A Mohawk was rated at 313 mph with
two guns, one .30 calibre machine gun with five hundred rounds and one
.50 calibre machine gun with two hundred rounds. In comparison the Hurricane
was rated at 320 mph and the Spitfire at 362 mph, both with eight .303
calibre machine guns.
France in 1937, as a result of industry nationalisation and the recent
introduction of the forty hour working week, suffered from production
bottlenecks due mainly to the lack of mass production techniques and was
having great difficulty in meeting its aircraft production needs. The
only realistic answer was foreign purchase, and with Britain also rearming
at full speed, the United States was the only source for combat aircraft
supply.
Two hundred Hawk H-75A's were ordered on May 13, and delivered by September
1 of 1939. These were the Hawk H-75A-1s which had four 7.5 mm FN mle 38
machine guns with six hundred rounds per nose gun and five hundred rounds
for the single gun in each wing. Beginning with Hawk #131, a six gun armament
was introduced as the Hawk H-75A-2s, a second gun with five hundred rounds
being added to each wing. By May 1940, all Hawk H-75A's in squadron service
were either the A-2s or the A-1s up rated to A-2s standards.
Beginning in March 1939, the following groups converted to the Hawk H-75,
GC I/4, GC II/4, GC I/5, & GC II/5. In late May 1940, a fifth group, GC
III/2 also converted. A second order for the Hawk H-75A was placed in
February 1940 comprising of 135 of the Hawk H-75A-3s, 285 of the Hawk
H-75A-4s (the fastest Hawk at 332 mph) and 230 of the Warhawk H-81 (the
first model of the P-40). A March 1940 order for 260 P-40's, 200 P-39's,
500 P-38's, and 140 P-46's (never built) was placed, and Britain took
over the bulk of this order after the fall of France. Many of the Hawk
H-75A-3s, a few of the Hawk H-75A-4s reached France before the Armistice,
although none of the Warhawk H-81's did. The remainder were then dispatched
to Britain, where the A-1s through A-4s variants of the Hawk H-75A were
known as the Mohawk I to IV, and the Warhawk H-81 (P-40) was known as
the P-40 Tomahawk I.
The RAF tested the Hawk H-75A's and found them to be generally inferior
to both the Hurricane and Spitfire in both speed and armament. The Hawk
H-75A's were then relegated to the secondary theaters of the war. However
it was noted, that the Hawk possessed extreme maneuverability and even
at high diving speeds, its control remained good. The Hurricane, Spitfire
and the Bf-109 all tended to exhibit heavy control forces at these speeds.
The Hawk was found to be more maneuverable than the Spitfire at any speed,
athough the Spitfire had a better sustained turn rate. French pilots had
also commented on the ease and rapidity of maneuvers. The Hawk H-75A also
had a robust structure that held up well to combat damage and rough field
handling. The Hawk H-75A was designed for ease of maintenance with excellent
access to important components.
When confronted with the Messerschmitt Bf-109, although some 40 mph faster
than the Hawk H-75A-2, the Hawk H-75A's of all French units combined accounted
for 233 confirmed and 84 probable German aircraft of all types.
The Curtiss Hawk H-75A, or P-36A Mohawk, athough a transitional design,
contributed significantly to Allied air operations in the early part of
the war. The over 13,000 P-40's, which were the direct descendants of
the Hawk H-75A, went on to fight in every theater of the globe throughout
the war.
Notes: The Hawk H-75A was the export version of the United States Army
Air Corps P-36A Mohawk. In one variant or another, it saw service with
France, The United Kingdom, Norway, The Netherlands, India, Thailand,
Argentina, Brazil, and China.
The prototype of the P-40 Tomahawk, evolved from the radial-engined P-36A
Mohawk, by the installation of the Allison V-1710-19 (C-13) engine, the
first altitude-rated Allison with built-in supercharger, with a liquid-cooling
system with the radiator mounted under the fuselage aft of the trailing-edge
of the wings and used the standard P-36A Mohawk wings, fuselage, tail-unit
and landing-gear.
Source: Curtiss
Hawk 75 by Gerry Beauchamp and Jean Cuny, A History of French
Military Aviation by Charles Christienne & Pierre Lissarrague, Jane's
Fighting Aircraft of World War II
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