Robert Davis Sharp will explain what it was like learning to fly a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
Editor: Krishna Teja Kurapati
Photos and Footage: US Archives
#aviation #history #wwii
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P-51 was Spider-Man, nimble and quick, the P-47 was the incredible hulk, big and brutal!!
That's awesome! And to think I got the jitters during fork truck training.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pioneerd bomber escort, defeated the cream of the Luftwaffe , and achieved air superiority over the Riech long before the arrival of the P-51 Merlin Mustang. Then performed the most hazoudous but extremely important missions of tactical fighter-bomber .
How did they fit balls that big into the cockpit?
This guy rules. Protect this man at all cost.
Verry interessant Story to hear from a Thunderbold Pilot self! Thank you Sir for this Interview and your Service, Respect and Honor ! Salute! 👍🇺🇸🌹
The p47 was always my favorite ww2 era aircraft. Its so awesome.
👍👏
I remember Robert Johnson's first flight in the Thunderbolt and getting whacked in the head twice by the canopy because it unlocked on takeoff.
Fascinating ❤
My fil was a P51 pilot who went through advanced training in the P40 before transitioning to the P51 which he flew through his tour. After the war he hadn’t mustered out while deciding his future and had to check ride a P47 for some hours. His description of the plane was like flying a dump truck. His first landing was so hard he damaged the gear. Needless to say bypassing the P47 in training to the P51 in combat left him dissatisfied with the P47.
His basic thought was going from sports car to a dump truck is no way to entice a pilot to stay in the service. I get it.
They were just kids ! Amazing just imagine do that at 22 years of age
Kill people and break things!
Going from 500 horsepower to 2000 horsepower is a big step
Now liberals want to take the freedom away
💯🇺🇸💯🇺🇸💯🇺🇸💯
I loved being a crew chief
I believe the Luke Field he is referring to is now the Luke AFB outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
In Europe the crewchief would ride on the wing while taxiing because the pilot could not see in front of that big engine.
I DESIGNED THE BI BOMBER AND SPACE SHUTTLE THANKS TO YOU GUYS. ❤😊
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE! ❤😊
WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY, YOU WERE ALL MY HEROS!❤😊
LANDS LIKE A P350 SERIES FORD VANETTE VAN WITH A BAD Steering Box. ❤😂😊
🇺🇸
They were gas pigs no drop tanks, no range
Same training on the f105.
🫡🇺🇸
I wonder what these incredible people think of the scum that are going through college these days.
P-47 is a Beast !
HERO!! THANK YOU SIR!!
A friend's father in law, Col Billie Edens, flew the P47. He told some stories at their wedding. He had to bail out and was on the ground banged up. Sitting with his back against a tree when a German tank came up. They stopped, opened the hatches and started having lunch, offered him food. Later when they started to button back up he thought "well, I'm done now". They just drove off.
The P-47 was a flying tank!
I spoke with a veteran WWII P-47 pilot. He said the best way to fight in the P-47 was to use its weight and power to your advantage. With 2,000 horsepower and 14,000 pounds, the P-47 can out dive any airplane. The best way to fight was to fly at high altitude and DIVE on the enemy planes, shoot, and DIVE away. If the enemy plane chases after you, you don’t get into a turning dogfight with the enemy plane. ( like the P-51 or Spitfire ) Instead, you DIVE to get away, zoom climb to establish a safe position, and then DIVE to attack again. If you try to fly in a turning dogfight with the lighter enemy plane, he can turn inside you and shoot you down, but if you DIVE and shoot, and when pursued, DIVE to get away, zoom climb up and then DIVE to attack, then you are flying and fighting in the P-47 correctly.
God bless sir ❤
Men of steel💪🏼
I know I have read that at one point when pilots were coming out of the AT-6 before they moved them on to planes like the P-47 or P-51 they had them transition for a few hours to flying P-40's of which there were many available at that point. Kind of using that as a super advanced trainer but a little more docile to fly, especially compared to the Mustang.
The life and accomplishments of Alexander Kartveli, designer, aeronautical engineer and innovator. Kartveli designed the A-10, P-47, F-105 and F-84 in addition to other experimental X-planes and advisor to NASA.
Alexander Kartveli, born Alexander Kartvelishvili,: ალექსანდრე ქართველიშვილი) (September 9, 1896 – June 20, 1974) was an influential aircraft engineer, a pioneer in American aviation history and an early technology innovator. Kartveli achieved important breakthroughs in military aviation and design. He is considered to be one of the most important aircraft designers in US history and the world, yet regrettably Kartveli is unknown to most Americans and Georgians.
The Alexander Kartveli Association (a Georgian non-profit) curates this site to preserve the past and invent the future based on Kartveli's life and accomplishments. The documents, notes and original artifacts collected over many years about Kartveli’s contribution to aviation – along with a narrative about his extraordinary life – reveal a picture of an important historical figure whose own modesty belies a vivid contribution to science, society and freedom.
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Kartveli’s personal journey parallels a professional career made up of persistent design contributions whose impact and timing take on a magical quality – and whose contribution velocity increased with the challenges of his era. He ventured out of his native Georgia fleeing the Bolsheviks. Leaving behind other family members, Kartveli, along with his mother, escaped turmoil and oppression to pursue a boyhood dream to design aircraft in the nascent field of aviation – an industry that resembled the freewheeling days of the early Internet. While in aviation school in Paris, one of Kartveli's plane designs set a world speed record. He earned a reputation in the Paris aviation scene in the 1920's – and eventually met US aviation entrepreneur, Charles Levine. Soon thereafter, Kartveli came to the United States as a penniless immigrant as head of engineering and design at Levine's venture-financed aircraft manufacturing company. The rest is history….
“It is possible with reasonable advancement of our knowledge to go beyond the moon to Venus and Mars, provided we retain enthusiasm, enterprise and daring.”
— Alexander Kartveli, Burlington Daily Times-News. March 26,
1958..