16" x 20".  Full-color print. The P-40 was America's foremost fighter in service when WWII began. P-40s engaged Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. The P-40 served in numerous combat areas - -the Aleutian Islands, Italy, the Middle East, the Far East, the Southwest Pacific and some were even sent to Russia. Though often outclassed by its adversaries in speed, maneuverability and rate of climb, the P-40 earned a reputation in battle for extreme ruggedness. At the end of the P-40's brilliant career, more than 14,000 had been produced for service in the air forces of 28 nations.
     The P-40 gained its greatest fame as the plane of the famed Flying Tigers. 
    The P-40 was also flown by the famous Tuskegee airman of the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first Army Air Force unit to consist of black Americans.  The name came from the Tuskegee Institute Division of Aviation, a university for blacks founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881.
   The first P-40 did not have a nickname.  Later versions which had larger engines were called the "Warhawk" and "Kittyhawk."   Those exported to Great Britain, France, China and other countries were dubbed the "Tomahawk."

 WWII Army