This Aircraft: Manufactured by Republic Aviation in Evansville, Indiana, and delivered to the USAAF on June 27, 1945. It was placed in storage until March, 1948, when it was assigned to an Air National Guard squadron. FHC's Thunderbolt is painted in the colors of the "Tallahassee Lassie," flown by Seattle-born Colonel Ralph C. Jenkins. He led the 510th Fighter Squadron, initially in England and later all the way through Europe to Germany at the end of WWII. Colonel Jenkins may be the pilot who attacked the staff car of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, wounding the German commander.
While the size of the average man stayed about the same, the size of the average fighter plane, and its cockpit, increased during World War II. This image shows the spacious working space in the Flying Heritage Collection’s P-47 Thunderbolt. It’s not surprising that the interior of America’s biggest single engine fighter of the war would have the largest cockpit too. It was so commodious, in fact, that it caused pilots of all nations to take notice. Pilots who transitioned from flying Spitfires in RAF Eagle Squadrons were shocked by the size of the plane. Compared to flying in the cozy cockpit of the Supermarine’s bantam defensive fighter, the inside of the Jug seemed disturbingly roomy. British observers wryly observed that one might slip off the seat, fall to the cockpit floor, and really hurt themselves. When a P-47 was captured, the Germans were equally puzzled by the Thunderbolt’s interior. Luftwaffe General Adolf Galland wrote that the cockpit was big enough to walk around in. Other German pilots, used to the comfy if-not-cramped cockpit of the Bf 109, felt that everything was out of reach. Another speculated that a pilot might be able to dodge bullets simply by loosening his shoulder straps and leaning to one side or the other as he flew.
The mechanics took cowling off of the P-47 Thunderbolt yesterday. Under that familiar silver mug lies its massive Pratt & Whitney R-2800 “Double Wasp” engine. The demand for the 2,000-plus-horsepower powerplants was so great during the war that auto companies such as Ford, Chevrolet, Nash, Buick, Continental, and Jacobs built them under license to bolster Pratt & Whitney’s output. (The one in the FHC’s aircraft is a Ford built-engine.) The R-2800 powered not only the famous Thunderbolt Army fighter, but also the Navy’s Hellcat and Corsair (and other aircraft too). The engine was so sturdy and dependable that it reached almost mythical status among flyers. Smashed by ground fire or starved of oil, pilots said the Double Wasp nearly always kept right on growling.