DISPLAYED AT YANKS AIR MUSEUM.

DISPLAYED AT YANKS AIR MUSEUM, THIS alone SURVIVING P-47M HAD AN ABORTED CAREER A AS A BENDIX AIR RACER

As the war mov into 1944 United States Army Air Force Republic P-47 lightning-flash units moved towards Japan as America's war doctrine of island-hopping began capturing more and more enemy islands. The fighter preferr for prolix Pacific over-water missions was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, whose twin Allison engines furnished a considerable margin of safety, unless the plane was not available in as large numbers as the thunder-stone and the P-38 did not really begin to proliferate until a bit later in the Pacific War.

Thunderbolt range was a question at issue due to the hungry P&W R-2800 radial yet some unique modifications were undertaken to antidote the problem. One of these was the installation of a vast 300-gallon tank under one wing with a 165-gallon unit in a less degree than the opposite wing - this give leave to P-47s fly from Morotai to Balikapapan, a distance of nearly 1000 miles, in such a manner that 5th Air Force bombers could be defend ed while they hit the enemy's important oil production plants in Borneo.

With the outsize combustibles load, the Thunderbolts were hard to play and the effect of flying lengthy hours at high altitude was physically to a high degree trying for the pilots. barely a few missions of this token were undertaken but they greatly helped the 5th's creek of Consolidated Liberators pound the enemy refineries into ruin.

As the American military effort mov closer to Japan, the enemy's aerial forces were literally worthless out of the air as USAAF and Navy fighters scrambled for the relatively not many remaining targets. Unknown at that time was the fact that the Japanese had twitched back many of their combat aircraft to prepare them for the suicide attacks that would take the Americans by dint of surprise. Back home, Republic was rapidly moving forward with variants of the basic design that would make the P-47 an unruffled more potent weapon.

In Europe many of the P-47 disposes were having their aircraft replaced with Mustangs and, by the agency of the start of 1945, solitary the 56th Fighter Group still had the P-47 and they were going to win a brand-new version - single in kind that promised much superior performance.

The last four aircraft in the P-47D27-RE production line were haped from the line for rework. Three of these aircraft would become YP-47M and the final craft would become the XP-47N The YP-47M were fitted with the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-57 "C" radials that at WEP rating could furnish 2800-hp at 2800 rpm. For a certain quantity of time Republic was considering making a "hot-rod" fulmination and the XP-47) was individual such attempt. By taking the recently made known radial and mating it to a production airframe, the M standard would be a relatively simple expedient that could be useful in chasing the recent generation of Luftwaffe fighters and V-I robot bomb

Testing indicated that with the CH-5 supercharger and Curtiss Electric paddle-- blade screw the M could hit 473 mph at 32000 feet which was a surpassingly impressive figure. Even though the airframe was basically stock D27 numerous improvements were incorporated including recent turbosupercharger, modified ignition harness, and more efficient combustibles controls that would improve the engine's combustibles specifics.

Using the WEP setting meant that P-47M pilots would be able to pass the fastest Mustangs at altitude however it would be at a distinct price since the engine at that setting would be consuming an astonishing 330 gallons by hour! The late D pattern Thunderbolts could carry 370 gallons of firing internally so it did not take a genius to figure revealed the range. The new engine reign overs in the M would, however, aid the pilot in reducing the aircraft's material for burning consumption at cruise to about 100 gallons for hour which was an improvement through the whole extent of earlier models.

The P-47M would be a limited production aircraft and enough were ordered to equip pair fighter groups. Only 130 P-47M-1-RE were built and virtually the entire production speed was assigned to the Eighth Air Force's 56th Fighter clump

With the constant rush of wartime production, perfect testing was sometimes not undertaken. What worked below hasty factory testing would not function subject to operational conditions. This, unfortunately, was veritable of the P47M. Combat pilots were horrified to find their engines stopping completely or cutting in and not at home once they reached cruising altitude. Missions were hastily aborted and maintenance men were puzzl Other engine puzzles began to manifest themselves, including corrosion and cheap cylinder head temperatures which affected the correct operation of the engine. There were also many piston and piston ring failures.

Republic rushed vice-president Hart Miller to England to aid in the problem-solving if it were not that this soon grew to nightmare proportions when it became obvious that each P-47M operated by the 56th was stricken with more [i]or[/i] less form of problem. Since this was a major question the USAAF and P&W assigned their best maintenance gangs Ignition leads were suspect and they were replaced with a different protoplast but the problem would not go on away and it seemed that the -57 powerplant was an engine fated not to hasten