Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

what is it?

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (nicknamed the "Jug") is a monoplane fighter aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Republic Aviation. Designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial engine and produced from 1941 through to 1945, it became the foremost American fighter-bomber in the ground-attack role during World War II. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, making it one of the heaviest fighters of the conflict. It is the namesake of a later U.S. ground-attack aircraft, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. The origins of the P-47 can be traced back to the late 1930s and the work of Alexander Kartveli, who sought to develop a replacement for the Seversky P-35.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 12.4 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 714 km/htop speed
• size 7,938 kgmax take-off weight
• built 15,686made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 85 years ago, in 1941.
• 🏎️Top speed is 5.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12.4 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1941-05-06

introduced

1942

retired

1966

status

retired

number built

15,686

role

fighter-bomber

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Buffalo, Republic Aviation Corporation

engines

1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59 / R-2800 Double Wasp

crew

1

length

11 m

wingspan

12.4 m

height

4.5 m

max take-off weight

7,938 kg

top speed

714 km/h

cruise speed

563 km/h

range

—

ceiling

12,802 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.