although not as heavily armed or as powerful as later fighters this baby could hold its own and did early in ww2 as it was chinas main defense against japans fighters.

The four stars is only due to the mass numbers this plane was built in and, of course, Chennault and the Tigers. In reality, the Flying Tigers were largely successful because they picked their battles. They attacked their targets, both air and ground, with hit and run tactics. They couldn't have duked it out with the Japanese for absolute air superiority, the Japanese pilots were at least their equal and their planes were superior.

Extremely famous with the Flying Tigers, but outdated, basically, from the beginning of the war with its first version. Curtiss' second and third versions had improve power, improve armour, more guns (4 and 6 respectively) and self-sealing tanks. Its reputation was made by the Flying Tigers, but I still think that the aircrafts were outdated.