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    Warpaint Series Special 1 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is featured

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    342 views92 pages

    Warpaint Special 1 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

    Uploaded by

    JeanAker
    Warpaint Series Special 1 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is featured

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 92
    Republic P-47 THUNDERBOLT Edited by Alan W.Hall, Artwork by Peter Scott, Photographic compilation by Norris Graser By Alan W.Hall, artwork by Peter Scott THE Republic P-47 Thund | one ofthe most significant World War 2. It served thro world in many ar forces on the Allied side and was developed into a hard-iting fight er-bomber, particularly inthe European the- ate, both in Italy and over France, the Low Countries and Germany. In the Far East, was significant in being one of the best ait- éraft developed for longer range work and zround attack when in use by the Royal Air Force in Burma. In United States Army Ait Force eyes it ranked equal to the P-SI Mustang and P-38 Light The Thunderbolts rugged construction made it one ofthe heaviest in terms of all-up-weight when contrasted with even he P-38 Lightning and ils powerful turbo supercharged Pratt-& Whitney R-2800 enabled it to carry prod wing Toads of rockets or bombs. which alowed its development so sucessfully into he ground attack role. ‘Originally, the Thunderbolt was designed by the chief engineer at Republic, a former Russian expatriate, Alexander Karvel, who discarded the then curent thinking of fight- er design in favour of large, heavily armed Republic's first fully completed Thunderbolt was the XP-478. Designed by Alexander Korvll tus test flown in Nay 1941, Power came from 2.000mp, "eeyinder Pratt & whiney Double Wasp boosted by 8 General Electric turbo super charger (Republic) aircraft capable of good range, powerful engine and assisted by a turbo supercharge that allowed operations up 10 40,000 ft, The prototype XP-47_ was rolled out at Farmingdale on 6 May 1941 nine months after the frst drawings had been made. But, like many new and advanced aircraft, the P-87 was to suffer a numberof technica deficiencies in its earlier versions, The XP- 47, P-A7B and P-47C developed faults that {ook time and patience to overcome Tt was not before the P-47D began to be produced that these were fully overcome land the USAAF ordered more ofthis version Republic P-470-22.RE Thunderbolt, 42- ‘26020:HL- bar of the 89rd Fighter Squadeon, ‘an Fighter Group, one ofthe frst th Air Force fighter units to arfive in England in 4983. The ‘olour scheme is Oive Drab over Neutral Grey Sd the white cow! and tal band markings were {or identieation purposes. (USAF via Robert Archer than any other. Out ofa total of 15,683 P-47s produced, more than 80 per cent were P. 47Ds, Initially the production line was set up at Republic's factory at Farmingdale, New York, but demand for the aircraft exceeded all expectations and in a flurry of activity Republic built a new production line at Evansville, Indiana, The Curtiss Aircraft Corporation was also brought into the peo duction programme building 354 P-47G-1 REPUBLIC P-47 THUNDERBOLT WARPAINT SPECIAL PAGE 1 {an early production model of the Republic P= {270 Thunderbolt Lack of underwing pyione and ‘contr line without shackles ade t the unut Si camouflage demarcation pattern. (Republic) CU to P-47G-15-CU Thunderbolts. which were identical to the Republic versions of the same variants ‘The outline shape of the Thunderbolt dif- fered little in the years it was in productos The most major change was to the pilot's canopy which from the original metal framed sliding hood came the all-round vision of the bubble canopy similar to the evelopment of the RAF's Typhoon. Together with a cut down upper rear fuse- lage, the modification was introduced on all three production lines, The only other major change in outline shape was that ofthe wing Initially a “universal” wing was developed which could be fited to any variant of the Thunderbolt, This allowed up-dating of ear- Tier airframes in the same way that many of these were subsequently returned tothe Tac tory for the fitment of the bubble canopy. ‘The wing could be used for the attachment of long range tanks, it had bomb shackles ‘capable of earrying two 1,000 Ib bombs and later carried ground attack, zero-length launching stabs for rocket projectiles which: were housed in bazooka type tubes. t-was in the later version, the P-ATN vari fant, thatthe actual shape of the wing was ‘changed to having blunt tips opposed to the rounded ones of the “universal” wing. These gave the Thunderbolt an increase in span of two feet and allowed for four additional 50 gallon fuel cells which increased the range for Pacific operations against the Japanes home islands ‘Apart from all the ordnance that could be carried the Thunderbolt had a fixed arma- iment of eight .50 calibre Browning machine guns with a varied amount of ammunition ‘depending on whatever else was hung under the wings ‘An initial shipment of $8 Thunderbolts Thunderbolts not only went tothe United 5 [Army Air Force but Yo 9 numberof other coun. telos as wall n this picture a USAAF one leads fn RAF Thunderbolt a. Soviet one. and an {Unmarked variant. (Republic) arrived at a UK port a few days before (Christmas 1942. The first aircraft were sent to RAF Atcham, near Shrewsbury, where former United States fighter pilots who had originally joined the RAF were transfered 10 ‘new Groups belonging to the 8th Air Force Fighter Command. The first P-47 operations by the USAAF in Europe began on 10 March 1943 when they intially made sever- al fighter sweeps over northem France 10 join combat with the BE 109s and Fw 190s Which were then equipping Luftwaffe Geschwader. Later they escorted B-17 and 18-24 squadrons on raids over European ‘occupied countries. The need to extend the Thunderbolts range was soon evident and three under fuselage and underwing long range tanks were adopted so that these fighters could accompany the bombers as faras Berlin and back. At about the same time and with the intro-

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