P-47C

The Thunderbolt series began in June 1940, when the United States Army Air Corps issued a requirement for a new lightweight fighter design. The most powerful engine at the time, the 2,000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800-21 Double Wasp 18-cylinder two-row radial, was selected as the starting piece of the P-47 Thunderbolt series; because it was the best engine for achieving the performance and load-carrying demands required by the USAAC. Adapting this massive engine to power a fighter aircraft required a great feat of engineering, but Alexander Kartveli and his team knew that without it, their design could not possibly meet the performance expectations that the USAAC required. A four-bladed 12ft-diameter propeller had to be used to harness the power generated by the R-2800, and Kartveli produced and efficient supercharging duct system that offered the least interrupted airflow, using an unorthodox method of designing this feature first and then building up the fuselage around it. The engine’s huge turbosupercharger was stored internally in the rear fuselage, with the large intake for the air duct mounted beneath the power-plant, together with the oil coolers. Kartveli designed a telescopic landing gear that was nice inches shorter when retracted than when extended so as to make room for the win installation of no fewer than eight .50in machine guns and their ammunition, which when fired imposed immense stress on the aircraft that had to be taken into consideration.

Loadout: 6x Bazooka Rockets

Top Speed: 572km/hr

Starting in September 1942 production of the P-47C started, with over 602 units built. The variant differed from the P47-B, having a lengthened forward fuselage, a new engine mounting, and changes to the ability to carry a 200-gallon vertical drop-tank. This gave the plane the ability to take long range missions, deep into occupied Europe. The P-47C also was able to carry a belly-mounted bomb or drop tank. The P-47C was truly a long-range killing machine that was pushing the limits of ingenuity.