We’ve got the manuals you need for the P-40 Warhawk, C-46 Commando, AT-9 Jeep, R-2600, R-1820, and R-3350 Engines.
If you’re like me, you’ve been frustrated more than once when you typed something like “P-40 Manuals” or “Curtiss Wright Manuals” into Google, and come up with a bunch of results for people selling scale models or parts on EBay. Sifting through pages of results trying to find a maintenance or service manual can waste valuable time, and sometimes makes you wonder where all the technical information from WWII went! Well, look no further - it’s my job to source out manuals related to all aspects of WWII aircraft, and make them available to you! I’m constantly scanning manuals and uploading them to the AirCorps Library website with the goal of collecting every manual that was published during the 1940s - not exactly a quick task. In 1953 the Air Force alone estimated that there were around 25,000 manuals available for the operational aircraft at that time!
Curtiss Wright is interesting because they are one of a few WWII era companies that are as well known for their aircraft as they are for their engines. At the end of WWII Curtiss Wright was the largest manufacturer in the United States and was responsible for a variety of fighter, trainer, and cargo aircraft types such as the P-40 Warhawk, C-46 Commando, and AT-9 Jeep. While Curtiss Wright engines such as the R-2600 powered the A-25/SB2C Helldiver, TBM Avenger, and B-25 Mitchell.
Having the goal of collecting every WWII aviation manual, means that I am interested in documents that others might discard because they are “too short” or “too specific”. When performing maintenance, or working on a restoration, it is these short Tech Orders and service bulletins that often answer crucial questions, and help speed projects along. For example, single page documents like “Servicing Coolant Systems on the P-40F, P-40L, P-51B, and P-51C”, and “Modification of the Carburetor Heater Shroud for the C-46A, D, E, F, and G”, might seem tedious, but when you need that information, there’s no better way to to answer a question. Curtiss, along with every other manufacturer during WWII had these short Tech Orders - sometimes hundreds for individual aircraft.
We’ve got a great selection of Curtiss manuals on the website, all available for digital download. The list below tells you what Curtiss products we have manuals for, how many, and also links directly to these specific manuals - check it out! Remember - We're adding new manuals to the site every day, so check back often.
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| MODEL | COMMON NAME | NUMBER OF MANUALS |
| P-40 | Warhawk / Kittyhawk | 29 |
| C-46 | Commando | 46 |
| AT-9 | Jeep | 5 |
| SB2C | Helldiver | 1 |
| R-2600 | Cyclone 14 | 6 |
| R-1820 | Cyclone | 24 |
| R-3350 | Duplex Cyclone | 5 |
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Additionally, if your interest also includes engineering drawings for the P-40, we happen to have 15,820 drawings for that aircraft. This information is only available to AirCorps Library members, so if you'd like to take a look, sign up today, it's only $9 per month or $75 per year! With a membership you can also fully read all the documents listed in the cart above, plus thousands more, without paying to download them!