Hello there...
The Chaco war was the most important conflict of the Twenty Century in Latin América, and saw the extensive use of aircraft.
Bolívia purchased nine Curtiss Hawk II, wich were used from 1933 to the end of the war in 1935. At the end of the conflict, in June 1935, only three of them survived.
The paint scheme was in many publications wrongly shown, but after a lot of research now the real aspect of the Bolivian Hawks II is finally known. Such findings were published in the book "Aircraft of the Chaco War 1928-1935", with many photografs never published before.
The nine planes were numbered as follow: 30, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48.
The only personalization known was applied on plane #40, and was an inscription in black "El Tigre", under the cockpit on the left fuselage side, of wich exists photographic evidence. This personalization was applied at a later stage of the war.
The tactical numbers were painted only on the vertical fin.
There is evidence about a unit marking that was applied on some of the Hawks II, in the shape of a cross, but the only image I was able to find is this one, wich is not of good quality...
Maybe a better rendering can be found in this screenshot of a faked Hawk II based on another mod plane for our beloved sim, author Real Darko:
It would be interesting if someone with the necessary skills in skinning would take on the task of making a set of skins for the Bolivian Hawks II based on the Nakajima A2N2 that Gio so kindly provided...
There already are some few Chaco War related campaigns, and the shape of the little Japanese fighter is fairly close resembling the Hawk II, with little differences. The most notable is the landing gear, but IMHO no one will complain about it...
Thank you in advance...
Cheers.
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Topic: Curtiss Hawk II Bolivia, Chaco War... (Read 6507 times)
