P-40 Warhawk Flying TigersCurtiss P 40E Warhawk Flying Tiger airplane model. The P 40E Warhawk gained its greatest fame as the aircraft used by the famed Flying Tigers. In the late 1930's Japanese forces were inflicting heavy losses on the Chinese. President Roosevelt promised the Chinese president that the United States would help, even though the US was not at war. The United States provided obsolete P 40B airplanes, but China didn't have the pilots to fly them. The U. S.