The Hawk 75 pursuit was an export success for the Curtiss Co. and served many nations all over the world. Of course, some wanted a simpler version without that complex retractable landing gear. After hearing neighboring Argentina had placed an order for
the simpler and sexier spatted variant and obtained a production license, Brazil sought the same and by the late summer of 1939, the first Curtiss Hawk 75s had taken to the skies above Rio.
Known as the Hawk-75P on internal Curtiss documents, it was commonly referred to as the Falcão in Brazilian service. The Brazilians undertook production at a government facility in São Paulo where they further refined the spatted undercarriage and added the latest in modern navigation aids in the form of a DF loop on 16 of the 60 eventually produced. These aircraft would be flight leaders and pathfinders for their squadrons.
By the summer of 1940, only 45 Falcãoes had reached frontline Força Aérea Brasileira units, but critically, all 16 of the DF-loop equipped aircraft had been delivered.
The timing couldn't have been better because this was just when that rapacious monopolist, Mr Peanut, decided to strike.
Brazil nuts had become all the rage and crafty Mr Peanut decided to try and corner that lucrative market. Of course, a few palms had to be greased and eventually Mr Peanut tried bribing the Minister of Agriculture. This turned out to be a grave mistake so Mr Peanut took it on the lam. Shortly thereafter, the Força Aérea Brasileira was given the mission of tracking him down.
It was assumed Mr Peanut would make a beeline for some remote border crossing where he could evade authorities. The Força Aérea Brasileira used their DF-loop equipped Falcões to try and follow the lawless legume across uncharted miles of trackless jungle and rain forest.
The pilots of the Força Aérea Brasileira flew sortie after sortie until they collapsed from exhaustion. Still, Mr Peanut remained elusive.
Often swooping down to tree-top level tracking a promising lead, the Falcões were perhaps the most graceful thing ever to take flight over the rain forest.
Unfortunately for justice, Mr Peanut would remain a fugitive and little information as to his whereabouts was ever found. However, there is some documentary evidence that he served in World War II.
Since nothing was seen of Mr Peanut after the war, it's quite possible he didn't survive the conflict or was so terribly wounded as to be unrecognizable.
As to the Força Aérea Brasileira and their speedy, spatted Falcões, those incredibly reliable and streamlined dream machines would go on to give sterling service, ending their careers as advanced trainers prior to being scrapped in 1946.
Nothing remains of those Falcões today and the few grainy photos of them that do exist are commonly mistaken for the Argentine version due to being taken from a bad angle. There are many so-called "experts" that insist this beautiful Brazilian spatted wonder must be all in the imagination of some nut.
Brian da Basher
