P-47 Thunderbolt

Designed by Alexander Kartveli, the P-47 Thunderbolt was the largest and heaviest single-seat fighter built during World War II, a rugged, dependable, and heavily armed aircraft whose accomplishments advanced Allied victory. It had a wingspan of 40 feet 9 inches, a length of 36 feet 2 inches, a gross weight of 13,500 pounds, and was powered by a Pratt and Whitney R2800 air-cooled radial engine with 18 cylinders rated at over 2000 horsepower, using Curtiss Electric or Hamilton Standard propellers and equipped with a General Electric turbo supercharger. Its armament was eight .50 caliber Browning machine guns and more than 2000 pounds of ordnance, and its missions were high-altitude escort and low-level ground support. The aircraft first flew on 6 May 1941, 15,683 were built by Republic Aviation Corporation, and in World War II its combat record included 1,874 enemy aircraft destroyed, 160,000 military vehicles destroyed, 9,000 locomotives destroyed, 113,963 tons of bombs dropped, 546,000 sorties flown, and 1,352,810 combat hours. Thunderbolt fighter pilots served with courage, distinction, and devotion to duty in every combat theater of operations during the war, and the aircraft was praised as the plane with more victories than any other fighter in the course of World War II. The aircraft was also dedicated to all who built it, to the manufacturers and suppliers, and to the ground crews and support personnel whose untiring efforts, selfless devotion, skill, and ingenuity kept the Thunderbolts flying mission after mission around the clock around the world.

Riverside, Ohio · United States