Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (nicknamed the "Jug") is a monoplane fighter aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Republic Aviation. Designed around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial engine and produced from 1941 through to 1945, it became the foremost American fighter-bomber in the ground-attack role during World War II. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to eight tons, making it one of the heaviest fighters of the conflict. It is the namesake of a later U.S. ground-attack aircraft, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.
The origins of the P-47 can be traced back to the late 1930s and the work of Alexander Kartveli, who sought to develop a replacement for the Seversky P-35. The resulting AP-10 fighter design attracted the backing of the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC), which designated it XP-47. Subsequent revisions to keep pace with contemporary fighters of other nations led to the XP-47B, a prototype of which was ordered in September 1940 and performed its maiden flight on 6 May 1941. The P-47 was noted for its firepower; its primary armament was eight .50-caliber machine guns, and it could carry 5-inch...