The ongoing Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles of aircraft which served throughout the South Pacific. Volume 11 covers the P-40 Warhawk (in Australia it is known as the Kittyhawk).

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. So it was a fighter made 'just in time' for the start of WW2.

The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational service. The Warhawk was used by most Allied powers during World War II, and remained in frontline service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II, after the P-51 (Mustang) and P-47 (Thunderbolt Vol 10 Pacific Profiles) by November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built, all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facilities in Buffalo, New York. Interesting the P40 remained in the Brazil Air Force as a frontline fighter until 1958.

P-40 Warhawk was the name the United States gave the plane, and after June 1941, the USAAF adopted the name for all models, making it the official name in the U.S. for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the original P-40, P-40B, and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants