World War Photos

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Curtiss XP-46 – a prototype fighter aircraft designed in 1939 and built in 1941 as a successor to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, which, although it was just entering production, was already outdated in comparison with the then European fighters.
The project is based on the analysis of experiences from the initial period of World War II. Donovan Berlin came to the conclusion that the new aircraft must be faster, better armored and have stronger armaments. The first project, which was presented to the USAAC headquarters, was so pleased that on 29 September 1939 the contract “CP 39-13” was signed for two prototypes of the new fighter, which received serial numbers 40-3053 and 40-3054.
In order to maximally accelerate the design period, both prototypes were build at the same time, and finally the aircraft with the marking “second prototype” (40-3054) was completed as the first one, and received the designation XP-46A – the first version of this aircraft had no weapons or radio. The first flight of XP-46A took place on February 15, 1941, it turned out that the “light” prototype without weapons and radio equipment barely reached the planned speed of 660 kmh and only at an altitude of 3600 m. The second prototype (serial number 40-3053, designation XP-46), fully armed and equipped, climbed into the air on September 29, and loaded with additional mass of weapons and radio equipment, managed to reach only 570 kmh. At that time, even in June 1940, before the prototypes of the new fighter were built, USAAC decided not to order serial production of this aircraft, but in order not to interfere with the production of the P-40, it was decided to simply equip this aircraft with an Allison V-1710-39 engine. P-40D proved to be faster than its planned successor XP-46.