Description

This definitive monograph describes the Curtiss Design 75 and one of its major production variants, the USAAC’s P-36, and its many international derivatives. The Design 75 of 1935, as it was initially described by Curtiss, was without doubt a turning point in U.S. fighter design. It incorporated all of the technical advances being favoured worldwide and was for Curtiss a huge engineering step forward. The Design 75 saw operational service with many air forces around the world and could lay claim to many aerial victories in intense dog fights during World War Two. It flew sorties in both Europe, North Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, India and Asia. Unbelievably, the Curtiss Hawk 75 saw service with both Allied and Axis air forces. After the opening of the Curtiss-Wright Corporate Archive at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, the authors have managed to correct many misunderstandings and outright myths surrounding the history of the type. The volume gives a detailed description of all of the derivatives of the Hawk 75, everything well-illustrated with hundreds of unique and high-quality photographs, plus a number of colour profiles.