Russian P-40 modifications

[Capt. Lou]

I understand that the Red Air Force modified their P-40 aircraft to increase performance. Does anyone know what they did?

[Graham Boak]

i don't know about any mods to increase performance: they did replace the Allison with a Klimov engine in some airframes but this was for reasons of availability, not performance.

hi, ive read somewere, they were a test bed, for russian copys,
as some jap and german planes were fitted with there spits engines,on captured usa brit planes,but thats all i know.of,........as its russian, i would not exspect, somewere in russias caves that there were lancasters still in crates.from news 1994,my daily news papers,the guy who found them wanted millions.,,,,,,
to show them but never heard this story again, since,
gary.

[Graham Boak]

As the Russians did not get and crates of Lancasters, it's not surprising you never saw anything else about this story.

Nor was there any attempt from Russian industry to copy any WW2 Allied aircraft before the B-29. Largely because there was little any other design had to offer technically. Certainly not the P-40.

[Amrit1]

This is a pretty comprehensive article of Soviet use of the P-40:

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/englis...p-40/index.htm

[kurlannaiskos]

one other very important reason to change the Allison engine with the Klimov was the fact that the Allison was not designed nor equipped for the extreme cold weather environment of the Soviet Union's more northerly areas where the first of these aircraft were used.
(mentioned in greater detail in the article in the link above)


as good as that article is it does not cover the K L M or N models and it doesn't cover the middle or later part of the war nor all the geographic areas the P-40 was used in.
actually, to do that properly you would have to write a book ( or two)
please don't get me wrong as I really do like that article but I would also like to see some more articles , perhaps a whole series of them.

[Evgeny Velichko]

1st: Only one IAP changed Allison to Klimov, and perfomases get decreesed. But it was the only chanse to have aviable aircrafts, because Allisons were very bad in cold weather... Also, aircafts were "not new", and without any repair detailes.

2: The only modofications of P-40C&B were - removal of wing mounted 7.7mm MG's. Pilots sayd, that 2x12mm was enough to kill Bf109, and perfomanses getting better enough to be almost with Bf109F. Also, in that period most of all "early" P-40's were playing role of topmast JaBo, flying with bomb to attack ships in Baltic Sea.

3. AFAIK, later mods of P-40 were not modificated, and used mainly as PVO fighter, because of low perf. compare with Fw190 and Bf109G.

[rldunn]

Some sources indicate that the Russians obtained increased perfromance on the P-39 and P-40 by ignoring the rated limitations on the engine and operating them at excess pressure. The performance increase was off-set by decreased engine life requiring frequent replacement or overhaul.

RLD

[kalender1973]

Originally Posted by rldunn

Some sources indicate that the Russians obtained increased perfromance on the P-39 and P-40 by ignoring the rated limitations on the engine and operating them at excess pressure. The performance increase was off-set by decreased engine life requiring frequent replacement or overhaul.

RLD

As one russian pilot say about Aerocobra „either you get from Alison 120 hours life time or you fight with messer and focker”