Curtiss P-40K Warhawk 42-10256/N401WHPhotographed at Reno on 11 September 2006.
Their scarce Curtiss P-40K Warhawk restoration first flew again on June 5 2006, following a lengthy recovery and rebuild that started back in 1992.
In that year, the wreckage of a crashed P-40K was removed from where it lay for a half-century in Murmansk, Russia. A Soviet pilot got the worst end of a tangle with German fighters in this Warhawk after it had 10 months of combat flying. The resulting crash-landing and subsequent deterioration pretty much wiped out everything aft of the cockpit, says restorer Erik Hokuf. Initially, Ken Hake, who had bought the wreck, brought the K-model to Kansas where he performed substantial restoration on the airframe. The horizontal stabilizer and enlarged fin are new-made, mated to original Curtiss elevator and rudder assemblies.
Joe Yancey at Rialto, California, rebuilt the P-40K’s Allison V-1710 engine mounted beneath burnished exhaust stacks.
Hokuf says the vast majority of the rivets in the airframe were replaced as much of the Warhawk was reskinned. To match Curtiss specifications, a batch of new rivets was made with the 78-degree countersink bevel Curtiss used - this shows the level of detail in the restoration!
Picture added on 05 February 2008
