Monster P-40 Warhawk: First Flight!

Monster P-40 Warhawk: First Flight!

Watching the first flight of this giant 7.6-foot-span warbird is a real treat! Piloted by Josef Spielhofer of the Austrian Falcon Wings, the plane weighs in at 61 pounds and is powered by a 3W 150 R2 inline engine and uses Weatronics radio gear. Watch to the very end for a landing that will get your adrenaline going! (It’s time to mow the field!) Thanks to Rcscaleairplanes for taking and posting this great video.

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Updated: March 2, 2019 — 8:25 AM

24 Comments

  1. Very nice P40, but why does he take off in one direction and land in the other?? Isn’t that asking for troubles?

  2. Awesome …..Thumbs up !!

  3. Great plane but the very rushed landing (resulting in a nose over) let it down.. Longer final and a little less show boating me thinks!

  4. Great looking bird

  5. Not if there is very little wind.

  6. All I can say is “WOW”….great flying altho the landing could be improved a bit !

  7. Thumbs up old P 40 still good perform from past, present, and future. Someday I buy giant gas P 40. It reminds me that my father saw them in air before begin ww2.
    Bob

  8. Very nice P-40. I know this is one of the planes that was used in the China section after we got involved after Pearl Harbor (you can see the US Army Insignia. Still a Flying Tiger, even though they wound up being absorbed into the US Army Air Corps. I still like the ones with the Flying Tiger Insignia (the AVG logo and the Chinese symbol). What the Flying Tigers did to help China should never be forgotten, before and after we got into the fight. That being said, the pilot needed to bring his plane in a bit slower and a bit more level so he could “flare” his landing. I agree that he came in too fast.

    1. Agreed, the grass needs to be cut!!! But he brought it in way too fast and didn’t give his flaps a chance to do their job.

  9. Sorry, but the Flying Tigers got involved before Pear Harbor .
    Ken

    1. Ken: I know the Flying Tigers got involved before Pearl Harbor. They flew using the Chinese insignia. After we got involved and the Flying Tigers got merged into the US Air Corps in 1942, when the lease with the Chinese expired, they took on the US insignia and flew with those markings while continuing the shark’s teeth markings. Here is the story from History Channel a few years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EMickdLwu0

      All I was trying to do is point out the difference in the insignia and when it was adopted.

      1. But you are right, Ken. The Flying Tigers got involved before Pearl Harbor as a volunteer force. The Chinese paid them an excellent salary way beyond what American pilots were receiving at that time.

  10. Excellent flight from beginning to end considering that some maiden flights are the only flight the plane ever makes.

    People that haven’t flown these aircraft are completely unaware of the level of skill and practice that is required to make a flight like this one.

    Great job. Any flight and subsequent landing that doesn’t require repairs is a good one…

    Cheers!

  11. you are right these war birds can be a challenge to fly it does take a skill level to handel these birds but in all he did a good job

  12. Great plane, great flight. Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more flights.
    Ray

  13. Even with the small crash landing, who does not make mistakes? Gorgeous plane. A work of art. Congratulations to the builder!

  14. ….very nice model, nice colors, love that gas engine sound, come in very nice 4 landing,,,first flight ,,,mmm,,,to me used 2 be freq that way,,,love this hobby,,,congrats 2 all,,,…

  15. Great model.
    But why always trying to make wheeler landings with warbirds? A real P-40 would make a 3-point landing on a grass runway (unless the pilot is not that good or there is a strong cross wind). Moreover, it is more “natural” and less demanding for the landing gear.

    1. Agreed, Hugo. He just came in a bit fast here, and the grass actually was long enough that it snatched the front landing gear.

  16. Well – if this was a maiden flight: I do miss some elements (perhaps they were performed, but not shown on the video):
    – No stall behaviour check
    – No in-flight CofG test (dive, inverted flight)
    – No control response test (rolling, rudder)
    – No trim & tracking check (straight vertical pull-up)
    – No simulated landing approach
    – No slow flight test with/without flaps

    Just flying around in big circles at full throttle doesn’t really tell you if the plane is OK, with the above listed tests the pilot could have come in much slower and controlled. The landing looked more like an attempted touch and go…

    Nice plane, but a very nervous pilot….

    MR

  17. Was not aware of any P-40 squadron other tan the ones in Italy that sported the “harlequin” pattern on the empennage???

  18. OUTSTANING AIRCRAFT. I LIKE THEM AND THEIR HANDLING BY THE OWNERS. OUTSTANDING VIDEO.

  19. It appeared the plane was nose heavy, and he did not have enough up elevator to overcome the drag of the grass on the wheels. His right wheel may have even been dragging/locking up on him causing it to do that little tip to the right at the end? And, there was a loud crack when the right wingtip hit the ground, making me think he has internal damage on that wing, making for a future accident waiting to happen. I don’t think there was a chance to not tip that thing over on the nose. It did look nice in the air though.

  20. Enjoyed watching very much.Used to have hours of fun building the smaller models when I was a kid.

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