Top Flite’s P-40E
Looking for an IMAA legal warbird that you can really sink your teeth into? Top Flite has the answer!
By Frank Granelli PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK GRANELLI O
ne of my early TV memories is watching John Wayne, in a cock- pit larger than a Presidential Suite, use his shark-mouthed P-40
IIB to blast the heck out any poor Japanese pilot crazy enough to fly in his sky. Maybe such early exposure to the “Flying Tigers” is what has made me partial to all fighter air- craft and particularly to the P-40. I still fly a 1991 vintage 60-size Hobbico P-40 ARF and have several Top Flite P-40 kits without the time to build them. So when Top Flite introduced a Giant
Scale P-40E ARF, I just had to buy one with all the trimmings. Big Scale airplanes fly and present well so what could be better than a giant, 86-inch span, ARF version of my favorite WW II fighter that I don’t have to build from a wood kit? It is even in Flying Tigers colors so I can fly along with “Capt. Jim Gordon” any time! However, the Warhawk was much more than just a movie airplane. Along with the P-39 Aircobra and F4F Wildcat, the P-40 held the line against America’s enemies for nearly two years. 13,738 Curtiss P-40 Warhawks fought on every front from mid-1941 until war’s end. But it was the Warhawk’s 1942 service with the American Volunteer Group in China that made the airplane a legend. It is therefore fitting that Top Flite chose to decorate their model from an AVG-in-
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spired full-scale P-40E, owned by Rudy Frasca, including the AVG’s famous Shark Mouth. The Shark Mouth design did not originate with the AVG. The British 112 Squadron first applied it to their Mark III P- 40s in June 1941, copying it from a German Bf-110 design. Top Flite’s all-wood P-40E is covered in
flat MonoKote™ with a matching flat-paint- ed heavy duty fiberglass cowl and gloss alu- minum spinner. Even the decals, except the shark mouth, have a flat sheen presenting a very realistic appearance. There is even a full cockpit interior complete with instru- ment panel, seat and joystick that, being far smaller than John Wayne’s, makes for a great scale addition. This P-40E also features scale split flaps,
an option for Robart
www.robart.com rotat- ing retractable landing gear (including the tail wheel), a plug-in stabilizer, pre-at- tached control surfaces, a vertical fin inte- gral to the fuselage and a one-piece, 86-inch wing. This last can make the P-40 a bit dif- ficult to transport unless you have a van or larger SUV. But the wing is far stronger and more rugged as a unit so this is a fair trade- off.
The big wing is a good place to start build-
ing this airplane. As is usual when dis- cussing advanced aircraft like the P-40, only the building highlights and important points are detailed here.
AT A GLANCE Type:
Construction: Wing span: Wing area: Airfoil: Length: Weight:
Wing loading: Engine: Prop:
Transmitter: Receiver: Battery: Ignition: Servos:
R/C giant scale balsa and ply 86 inches
1262 sq. in.
semi-symmetrical 72 inches
22.5 pounds 41.1 oz./sq.ft. DLE 55
Zinger 22–6-10 JR 12X
JR R1221 1875 mAh Ni-MH (2) Tech-Aero Designs’ IBEC
Futaba S3152 @ 6V (6) JR DS 821 (1)
Manufacturer:
Futaba S3003 (2) Top Flite
Dist. by: Hobbico P.O. Box 9021
Champaign, IL 61826 217-398-3630
www.top-flite.com
MARCH 2012
Giant Scale
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