This is a Curtiss P-40 aircraft on exhibit at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. It is one of the celebrated fighters used by Major General Claire L. Chennault's American Volunteer Group, as the "Flying Tigers" were officially known. Operational before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, this group of courageous pilots distinguished themselves in action in the skies over China and Burma, and by 1942 had become the core of the Chinese Air Force. Exploits of the contract pilots who flew these aircraft gave American morale at home a much needed lift during the first bleak months of the United States' involvement in World War II.