Niagara Aerospace Museum

Preserving Western New York's Aviation and Aerospace History

Curtiss test pilot Bob Fussell sets a world speed record in a power diving Curtiss P-40 fighter — 661 mph! The P-40 wasn’t the fastest plane in World War 2 in level flight, but her strong structure and aerodynamic design enabled her to out dive many of her contemporaries without going out of control due ‘compressibility” effects. This was a lesson ‘Flying Tiger” pilots learned early on when they used the P-40s superior dive characteristics to escape from the more maneuverable Japanese Zero in China. A favorite tactic was to dive from superior altitude, make a quick pass, and then diving away and extending before the Japanese fighters could react.The Zero was hard to control in a dive at speeds over about 350 mph.

via Niagara Aerospace Museum