Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
The Jug
“Seven tons of fighter with eight machine guns and a will to come home.”
Republic Aviation · military
The Thunderbolt was the biggest and heaviest single-engine fighter of the war, built around a turbosupercharged R-2800 and eight .50-calibre guns. It could absorb punishment that would have destroyed anything else and bring its pilot home, and in the last year of the war it became the Allies' great ground-attack fighter, wrecking trains, tanks and airfields across Europe. More P-47s were built than any other American fighter. Around 19 remain airworthy.
The P-47's turbosupercharger ducting ran the length of the fuselage, which is why the Jug is so fat: the intercooler and turbo lived in the tail.
The fattest single-engine fighter you will see: a deep belly, a huge four-blade prop, and either a razorback or a bubble canopy. Eight gun ports along the wings.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Jug from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
