The P-40 Warhawk

The New D-day War Birds P-40 Warhawk

Our P-40 Warhawk is tribute to the legendary Flying Tigers. Officially named the American Volunteer Group (AVG), this band of heroic American mercenaries was hired by China and led by General Claire Chennault These fearless pilots were recruited under a secret Presidential sanction and formed three squadrons that trained in China and defended the Burma supply line prior to the American entry into World War II.

For a real authentic look, download our Chinese markings for the P-40.

Features:

Wingspan 28.5"
Weight about 8.4oz
Total all-up weight = around 11.5oz. )

Recommendations:

Battery = approximately 1000 mAh 11.1 V
Two small servos
ESC for a brushless motor
Brushless motor
Package available here: RC HOTDEALS

Here is how to build your P-40 Warhawk in one hour

You should have a fuselage, a wing, rudder, elevator, two wheels, two landing gear struts, three control horns, elevator joiner and pushrods

A U shaped wire is included to allow you to control each half of the elevator with one control horn. Mark the location on the bottom side of the two elevator surfaces, getting it as centered as possible. Attach with CA.

The U shaped wire will allow the two halves of the elevator to work simultaneously

While working on the tail, this is a good time to install the elevator control horn, mark a location just outside of the fuselage and make a slit into the EPP. Test fit the push rod as well at this time so that you can enlarge the control horn hole as needed.

Attach the above assembly to the fuselage using CA or Hot Melt Glue and hold it square to the fuselage until it dries

The wing is fully assembled, but this is a good time to mark the location of your aileron servo and to install the control horns. Use your servo as a guide and mark the cutout needed to seat it into the wing. Note, be certain to allow room for the fuselage air scoop

With the servo location established, mark two dots where the servo horn attachments will be and draw a line where each aileron control horn will be installed. Use a straight edge to establish a good angle so that the thrust of your servo will be parallel to the installed control horn. This is also a good time to drill out hole for the push rod if necessary

Use CA to install the control horns, you may want to trim them to length if they are too long

You can use CA for this step, but hot melt glue allows more working time and adjustment room. Put a single bead of hot melt glue down the center of the fuselage wing saddle, fit the wing into place and adjust so that it is square to the fuselage. Once dry, you can add additional CA or hot melt glue along the edge to strengthen the joint

The completed EPP assembly (showing wheels that will be installed next if desired)

The landing gear is assembled out of a plastic strut, a wheel, a bolt and two nuts.

Place the bolt through the strut, tighten one of the nuts and insert the assembly through the wheel, install the other nut to retain the wheel, but do not tighten, hold in place with a drop of CA glue

Measure 90mm out from the center of the wing and mark the location of the strut on the wing. Note that there is a notch on the strut that will fit over the wing reinforcement.

Install the servo with hot melt glue (CA would be hard to remove when you want to use the servo again)

Glue a short length of straw tubing to the fuse to use as a pushrod guide for the elevator

Install the aileron control rods, using a straight edge to trim out the ailerons

Depending on your motor, your attachment methods and options may be different. We use the Tower Pro 2408-21 brushless outrunner which should be surface mounted. To accommodate this, we traced the fuse onto a piece of scrap plywood and installed the plywood firewall with CA. The motor we recommend also comes with a GWS style stick mount that could be used in place of a firewall mount

The Warhawk, as assembled above, should balance without the battery at a point near 50mm from the leading edge. For such small models, the best way to balance them is to the place a rod though the top of the fuselage at the desired CG point and suspend the model from the rod so that you can check the balance with your battery pack and location