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In the early days of WW2 the French bought large numbers of American aircraft that upon the fall of France got taken over by the British . Included in this was the Brewster Buffalo . This was not a great purchase as for some reason I really can not fathom the British specified a 1000 hp engine instead of the more common 1200 hp engine and added heaps of extra weight they considered essential . all of this made a decent fighter into a poor performer . to add insult to injury it appears the engine's supplied had all been refurbished already and wore out rapidly . The aircraft I personally find very interesting is actually the P-36 Hawk .

In 1940 the Hawk was a good fighter with an enviable record of aerial victories and far better then the Buffalo . Interestingly enough the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation was capable of building it and could have gotten a licence in 1939 if needed . The Wasp engine was already in production for the CAC Wirraway . The P-36 or more accurately from the version I like is the French Hawk 75 A4 with 6 7.5 mm machine guns . With a Twin Wasp producing 1200 hp it would be a better aircraft then the Buffalo for deployment to Singapore . It could easily be made in Australia under licence . It also could lead the way to licence production of the Kittyhawk later .

In 1939 Wackett travels to Europe and then the United States in an attempt now that war has broken out to guarantee aircraft for Australia's defence . In England he gets told no spare capacity exists to create the jigs needed to enable production in Australia of any modern aircraft . In the United States it's a different story . Curtiss is having trouble keeping up with orders for it's Hawk fighter and see's an Australian licence production as a good sale / investment . The Pratt and Whitney company see's production of Double Wasp engines as a good sale also . By mid may 1940 the Fishermen's Bend factory in Melbourne is building the first Australian Hawk fighters with 6 0.303 browning's . Production is slow at first but by December 1940 production is ramped up 20 per month . The availability of Hawk Aircraft from Australia changes British Procurement plans and instead of ordering 170 Buffalo's an order was placed for 200 Hawk aircraft to be made in Australia and the USA and then sent to Singapore and India .

By December 7th 1941 the Curtiss Hawk Production had reached 270 aircraft in 3 models . The different models mainly having better engines and some slight changes to armament . Notably the reintroduction of the cowling 0.50 calibre Browning . Singapore had received 6 full squadrons of the Hawk fighters and had 22 on charge for each Squadron for a full allotment of 132 aircraft . With Australia making the Twin Wasp engines a surplus of engines for replacement was kept . Pilots had confidence in the fast climbing and tight turning machine. Netherlands Brewster Buffalos showed they could turn with a Hawk but not outclimb it .
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