Was the P-40 "just" a re-engined P-36 Hawk? (2 Viewers)

[Spindash64]

I know the P-40 came about from a number of experiments with the P-36. It almost sounds like the P-40, at least in its first production variants, was essentially identical to a late model P-36, aside from the components necessary to fit a Liquid Cooled V-12 in place of the old Radial engine. Is this true? Or were there some significant "under the hood" differences to consider?


I ask this partly in consideration of some other swaps between air cooled and liquid cooled engines (or vice versa) that happened. Some that I can think of immediately:

K-61-II to Ki-100, due to the lack of Ha140 production and supply (ironically making the plane far better than before, shedding the lead weights from the tail needed to balance)
Fw190A to Fw190D, to obtain better performance at altitudes
LaGG-3 to La-5, in one of the more dramatic changes in performance
Yak-3 to Yak-3U (never saw combat)
Tempest V to Tempest II, although this was really multiple parallel variants, if memory serves me well.

Sometimes, we consider these different planes, and sometimes they're the same family, with a major variant change.

It does seem like more of a "super hawk" to me than a fully new design, in the heavily built wing structure. But "vibes" really aren't a good judge for that

 

[fubar57]

The P-40 came about using the P-36 airframe and mounting an Allison V-1710, with modifications of course. This became the XP-37 and 13 test aircraft were built. Problems occurred with the super-charger and pilot vision and the XP-37 was abandoned. Here's the rest