Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

Republic P-47 Perak History

While much of the WWII air combat romance tends to lean toward the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) North American P-51 "Mustang" or Vought F4U "Corsair", the Republic P-47 "Thunderbolt" (affectionately known as the " Kettle") is second to none because of its global reach, its contributions to air and ground warfare (in all theaters), and the fact that it produced more of the war effort than any other American fighter jet.

While it doesn't look pretty, the Thunderbolt has "it" in its place - its distressed metal casing, sturdy body, and powerful engine. Her weight has never made her an outstanding close-quarters fighter, but this disadvantage makes her excellent in "diving and zooming" attacks against enemy combatants, while proving that she is comparable to the eight-section heavy 5 in ground strikes Inch batteries are as good as machine guns firing rockets and conventional bombs. Ultimately, the unsung heroine of World War II proved that no matter how sexy she was with her designs, she wasn't going to play a secondary role in front of anyone. The P-47 proved to be such a formidable enemy that the local Axis infantry feared that one day they would encounter a "Fat Farmingdale" falling from the sky, its eight machine guns ablaze.

Raiden served on every major battlefield of World War II.

Alexander de Seversky

Alexander Nikolaivitch Prokofiev de Seversky was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Tbilisi, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. Despite being thousands of miles from any American city, the surname will one day help create the legendary P-47. Since nothing like a family like this is out of reach, one of the prizes Seversky owned became one of the first planes in the Russian state. So Alexander Seversky learned to fly at a very young age and soon developed a passion for all things flying and an equally huge passion for all things mechanical. Seversky attended military school at age 10 and graduated from the Imperial Russian Naval Academy in 1914.

During World War I, he was stationed on a destroyer in the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea as a seaman. His original hobby is still flying - and he's very good at it.

Shortly after 1915, he left the Navy and attended the Military Aviation School, only to return to the Russian Navy - this time as a pilot.

Following the transfer, Seversky was assigned to one of Russia's emerging squadrons. He was deployed as a two-man bomber pilot with a companion - the spotter/tail gunner - in the second cockpit.

The Seversky exploded on a mission against a German destroyer, which might have felt like "routine" (if routine in combat even existed). In the first attack, his plane came under heavy ground fire, thwarting the attack and forcing the plane into the sea. To make matters worse, the dud now exploded under the wing, instantly killing its observer and severely dismembering Seversky's leg.

Although he was eventually rescued, Russian doctors had to amputate the injured leg, and Seversky's flying career was all but over.

Seversky recovered from his wounds, now equipped with a wooden leg, and began to resume his former position as a pilot in the Russian Air Force. While his superiors balked at the idea, Seversky took off illegally during an air show with senior Russian military officers. Although his actions in the air still proved that he was a reliable pilot, Seversky was immediately imprisoned for his actions, but was later pardoned by Tsar Nicholas II. As a result, Seversky regained flying status and exploded in 1916. From there, Alexander Seversky became the main combat ace of the Russian Navy, scoring between 6 and 13 times (sources vary widely).

With or without legs, Seversky can fly as long as his heart beats.

This is pure Bolshevik!

In 1917, Seversky was sent to the United States as a member of the Special Envoy to study aviation practices and construction techniques across the country. America is home to the assembly line, and it seems like an ideal place for any developing industrial powerhouse to take notes. In 1918, however, Russia fell to the Bolsheviks, putting Seversky, a wealthy aristocrat, in danger and shattering any idea of ??a safe return to the homeland. Therefore, he chose to remain in the United States, where his combative background and engineering talents were put to good use at Curtis Aircraft. Seversky served as the company's test pilot and aeronautical engineer, and his hard work was eventually rewarded with promotion to the U.S.

Army Air Corps Reserve major.

Seversky was an entrepreneur at heart, quickly protecting his innovations in aircraft development. While patenting early air-to-air refueling technology, he also developed the bomb targeting system with the help of Sperry Gyroscope, and brought Seversky a patent protecting the work. In 1923, the U.S. military acquired the rights to the bombing sights for a hefty sum of $50,000, which proved to be a solid financial foundation for Seversky to start his own company, aptly named Seversky Aero Company.

However, the financial crisis of 1929 thwarted the first venture.

Undeterred, Seversky persevered and, after securing additional outside funding, launched Seversky Aircraft in 1931. After Russia fell to the Bolsheviks in 1918, he hired Alexander Kartveli, a former Russian (Georgian) engineer.

The company has had some early success with their new SEV-3 sport amphibious aircraft. The three-person aircraft is capable of landing on land and water and has been awarded a contract for the BT-8 trainer aircraft produced by the U.S. military.

BEV-3

Motivated by the success of the BEV-3, Seversky pursued a more advanced design. His company moved to Farmingdale on Long Island to build their Army BT-8 trainer on an even bigger bluff. A new competition brought another contract for the Seversky P-35. The P-35 is hardly a burner at 260 mph, but the U.S. Army still needs more "modern" fighter jets with closed cockpits and worn metal hulls.

European development at that time clearly surpassed that of American aircraft. In any case, the P-35 entered service in 1938, but was completely obsolete by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

P-43 Lancer

A new Seversky demonstrator is already in production that features a GE supercharger coupled to a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial piston engine, which the company calls the AP-4 - essentially a P- Improved 35. The Army liked what it saw and issued a contract specifying the YP-43 "Lancer" for 13 evaluation models. In late 1939, Seversky himself traveled to England to try to sell his products, hoping to secure more lucrative war contracts from desperate European nations eager to take on the might of the German war machine. During this period, Seversky's board of directors passed a vote of no confidence in Alexander Seversky, removing the company's president. The company was reformed under the name of Republic Airlines and retained the services of Alexander Kartveli as the company's chief engineer.

Seversky himself is not in the photo.

Lancer's work continues. The YP-43 was equipped with 2 x .30 caliber machine guns and 2 x 50 caliber heavy machine guns without self-sealing fuel tanks or protective armor for the pilots. The P-43 Lancer entered limited production, but it didn't prove to be the U.S. Army's answer. An improved form of the P-44 "Rocket" aircraft appeared, which the U.S.

Army was very enthusiastic about, but what was happening in Europe quickly dampened that enthusiasm. Watching the French and British air battles, the Army realized that not even a "rocket" could do in combat what agile fighter jets did in Europe. These planes have slim fuselages, relatively powerful liquid-cooled inline engines and equally powerful weapons.

The Army created a wish list for their next fighter jet and determined they needed an interceptor capable of at least 400 mph at 25,000 feet and at least six times as many weapons. 50 caliber machine gun, long-range and pilot protection, and longer-range fuel tanks.

AP-10/XP-47

As the war draws nearer, time is of the essence. A New Republic design centered on the liquid-cooled Allison V-1710 inline V-12 engine, very similar to the powerplants used in the streamlined Bell P-39 Airacobras, Curtiss P-40 Warhawks and Lockheed P-38 Lightning resemblance. The design was given the company name AP-10, and by 1939 Kartveli had completed drawings of the aircraft, which consisted of the smallest possible fuselage.

He added some impressive performance estimates, saying the new plane will (theoretically) reach speeds of 415 miles per hour. U.S. Army experimenters at Wrightfield took a closer look and provided some minor changes, including a slightly larger overall fuselage and increased weight and surface area.

Two hardpoints are placed under each wing, and the weapons are a pair of odd 1x. 30 caliber machine gun and 1 x 50 caliber machine in the top fairing.

It was good that the U.S. Army had doubts from the preliminary design, and more importantly, that modern fighter jets were still desperately needed, so the AP-10 was put into production under the designation of the XP-47 prototype.

The development of the program will begin with two complete airframes - XP-47 and XP-47A. The XP-47 was a full-fledged product with combat weapons, while the XP-47A was designed to be a flight test model with no combat options, but to test the effectiveness of the design in controlled experiments.

The program has nine months to produce the final product.

Further review of the XP-47 design by the U.S. Army Treasury Department (which controls funding) forced more revisions. The wing area - considered too small in the original design - has been increased and added extra. 30 caliber and . Added 50 caliber machine gun.

Now also includes self-sealing fuel tanks and armor. Of course, these options add to the overall weight of the aircraft used as an interceptor - if an interceptor cannot climb within a reasonable range, it is no longer considered an interceptor.

Back to the drawing board - XP-47B: The True Thunderbolt Prototype

At this time, warfare in Europe was changing monthly, as were tactics and techniques. Pratt & Whitney have introduced their R-2800 Double Wasp, an 18-cylinder, twin-row, air-cooled, radial piston engine, and their larger offering is rated at 2,000 hp. Despite being more gas-guzzling than the original Allison inline, the Double Wasp promises more power and performance than its predecessor.

Kartveli made a second design attempt to fit this new engine into a suitable airframe, since the tiny AP-10 was too small to handle such an engine. Bold new designs are created with 6x. 50 caliber machine guns on the wings, adequate armor protection, self-sealing fuel tanks, large surface area, and a 12,000-pound operating weight.

This new design received the designation XP-47B, while the XP-47 and XP-47A were quickly forgotten, both eventually being cancelled entirely. Excited by the prospect of this massive 400-mph beast, the U.S.

Army quickly placed a production order for 773 XP-47Bs on September 6, 1942before even a prototype was available. Surprisingly, only one XP-47B was built, and no service-test variants (YP-47B) were ordered - a far cry from the now desperately cautious U.S. Army.

The actual role of the turbocharger (or turbocharger)

High-altitude performance was a must for the new design, as air combat paid little attention to operating the ceiling. Therefore, large and complex turbochargers (also called turbochargers) are considered a necessity for such activities. Turbochargers essentially provide engine critical altitude operation at sea level - the maximum altitude at which the engine can maintain its rated horsepower without compromising performance. A turbocharger features a turbine driven by engine exhaust gas and a compressor with a high-speed impeller to pressurize the incoming air.

The resulting action creates high-pressure, high-density air that is then sent back to the engine to maintain applicable performance at higher altitudes.