The Rowley P-40F was a 3/4 scale replica of the Second World War Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.
The company, 76th Fighter Squadron Inc, was named for the 76th Fighter Squadron, formerly a Flying Tigers unit flying P-40s.
The P-40F featured a cantilever low wing, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a sliding canopy, conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft was capable of aerobatics.[2]
The aircraft fuselage was made from welded 4130 steel tubing, covered in sheet 2024-T3 aluminum. The 281NaN1 span wings were made with a spruce wood box spar, with an aluminum front shear and had a wing area of 128square feet. The acceptable power range was 95to and the original engine used was a 1000NaN0 2si 808, later replaced with a Rotax powerplant.[3]
The P-40F prototype had an empty weight of 750lb and a gross weight of 1200lb, giving a useful load of 450lb. With full fuel of the payload for the pilot and baggage was 318lb.
The standard day, sea level, no-wind takeoff with a 1000NaN0 engine was 8000NaN0 and the landing roll was 7000NaN0.
On Sunday, 2 July 2000 in Peyton, Colorado the prototype and sole example, registered N42915, crashed, killing the designer/builder of the aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board summarized the events: "The pilot was performing a low fly-by over runway 33, and as the airplane reached the departure end, the engine lost power. Witnesses said that the pilot made a left turn back towards runway 15. Subsequently the airplane hit wires, impacted terrain, cart wheeled, came to rest against a transmission pole, and burned. Post accident examination of the engine revealed that the gear reduction assembly had failed. The pilot had designed and built the airplane in 1986." The NTSB assigned cause factors: "the pilot's inadequate decision to turn back (low altitude) towards the runway for a forced landing. A contributing factor was the total loss of engine power due to a reduction gear failure."[4]
The sole example's Federal Aviation Administration registration in the United States expired on 30 September 2013.
