Tag Archives: Oshkosh WI

Better-than-new P-47 Thunderbolt debuts at AirVenture 23

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         Virg Hemphill

Here’s a great story from one of our top Aviation Scout Reporters, Virg Hemphill (L), a former USAF ADC Fighter Pilot, Delta Airlines Senior Pilot, a long-time FASF member, as well as the Treasurer of El Paso, TX Flight 24 of the military Aviator Fraternity, the Daedalians.

The story is courtesy of GENERAL AVIATION NEWS and written by Frederick Johnsen.  Virg ads, regarding the P and later the F-47 “Thunderbolt,” this on-point quote from Major General William E. Kepner, of the Eighth Air Force Fighter Command:

 

“If it can be said that the P-38s struck the Luftwaffe in its vitals and the P-51s gave the coup de grace, it was the Thunderbolt that broke its back.” 

Here’s the story:

  The restored Republic P-47D Thunderbolt at AirVenture 2023. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

The following video is thanks to AirShowStuff which takes some of the finest videos at each year’s AirVenture at Oshkosh.  The Video is just over 5 minutes long.  We recommend watching this video in Full-Screen Mode, by clicking on the FS Square in the lower right.

AirCorps Aviation of Bemidji, Minnesota, walked away with the Grand Champion World War II award and the Phoenix Award at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 for the work they performed on a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt abandoned in New Guinea during World War II.

AirCorps has smartly harnessed computer power to recreate parts from two-dimensional drawings or sample items, creating intelligent computer-aided drafting tools.

Matching that digital savvy, AirCorps Aviation has an eye for vintage construction process details that add to the look and feel of its restorations.

The latest result from the company’s shop is the only flying Republic-built razorback Thunderbolt. (Planes of Fame Air Museum has a flying razorback that is a license-built P-47G made by Curtiss, for the purists in the audience.)

Razorback Thunderbolts have a high fuselage fairing behind the cockpit that narrows to a ridge — or razorback — at its apex.

Erik Hokuf of AirCorps Aviation told a standing-room-only crowd at AirVenture during a Warbirds in Review session that the P-47 incorporates more than 40,000 parts in its large airframe.

The Warbirds in Review ramp at AirVenture allows unique aircraft like the P-47D restoration to be highlighted in popular programs featuring restorers, pilots, and re-enactors as seen in the photo taken from the top of one of the sets of bleachers that were filled to capacity for the Thunderbolt presentation. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

All the rivets in the P-47 were removed during restoration. The skin is new, and the large ovoid cowling was manufactured in-house by AirCorps.

Construction of the cowling, as well as other externally visible parts of the massive wings and fuselage, involved spot-welding internal structure to the skin.

Frosted silver striping on portions of the wings and fuselage of the P-47 are byproducts of the construction technique used in spot welding skin to the underlying structure. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Republic used an acid-etch in strips along the skin where spot welding would take place, and this resulted in a different sheen that stands out on this bare metal airframe.

Formers were temporarily attached to the skin in a few strategic locations with Cleco fasteners to ensure proper fit and alignment before the spot welding was conducted. Subsequently, the Clecos were removed, and the holes for the Clecos were plugged with rivets.

The result is an industrial, functional look that AirCorps reproduced.

Rows of realistic-looking .50-caliber ammunition were placed into the wing ammo bays of the P-47D on display in the Warbirds area at AirVenture 2023. The award-winning restoration left nothing to the imagination in its pursuit of authenticity. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

Over time, the skin will acquire a patina that diminishes the prominence of the etching stripes.

If warbird rebuilds of 40 or 50 years ago sometimes were shiny and salon-looking, efforts in recent years have emphasized realistic construction details that provide an authentic, and intense, time-machine look.

The knife-edge windscreen of the razorback Thunderbolts is made of curved laminated safety glass. For the restoration, AirCorps outsourced new glass to do the job properly.

Erik Hokuf of AirCorps Aviation has every reason to smile, with the P-47D his team nurtured over 12 years in restoration displayed prominently at Oshkosh during AirVenture 2023. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

How long does such a restoration from the ground up take? How about more than a decade? The hulk of the P-47 arrived at AirCorps Aviation in 2011.

The P-47 is powered by a Pratt and Whitney R-2800 engine.

But not just any R-2800 would do for this spot-on restoration. It had to be the correct Dash-59 version, properly mated to a Curtiss Electric C542S-A114 symmetrical wide-blade propeller.

While some P-47 restorations fly suitably well with Hamilton Standard propellers, the matching of the proper Curtiss propeller with this engine gives this restoration faster acceleration, pilot Bernie Vasquez told the AirVenture crowd.

He added the high streamlining of the razorback versions of the P-47 create less drag than found on later bubble-canopy Thunderbolts.

Several times during the week Vasquez delighted the Oshkosh crowd with powerful flying demonstrations of the P-47.

It’s an easy time travel back to World War II in the Pacific when Bernie Vasquez put the pristine P-47D through its paces during AirVenture 2023. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

This P-47, putting out more than 2,300 horsepower, is equipped with a water-alcohol injection tank to cool the engine for brief periods of high-power activity.

 

 

The Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot, North Dakota, is the home of this fabulous warbird. The museum opted to have the Thunderbolt painted in the markings of P-47 ace William Dunham of the 348th Fighter Group.

Dunham earned 16 victories over Japanese aircraft by the war’s end. He is also remembered for a mission in which he watched a Japanese pilot bail out of the aircraft Dunham had just shot.

Stories of Japanese pilots gunning Americans as they drifted in their parachutes initially prompted Dunham to line up on the enemy aviator for that treatment in the heat of battle. But he stopped short of firing at his opposing flier and watched him plunge into the sea, with no life jacket visible.

Dunham flew low overhead and tossed out his own life jacket to the Japanese pilot in the water.

The ultimate fate of that downed enemy flier has been lost to history, but Dunham’s chivalry lives on in the Thunderbolt painted to represent his aircraft.

 

 

About Frederick Johnsen:

Fred Johnsen is a product of the historical aviation scene in the Pacific Northwest. The author of numerous historical aviation books and articles, Fred was an Air Force historian and curator. Now he devotes his energies to coverage for GAN as well as the Airailimages YouTube Channel. You can reach him at Fred@GeneralAviationNews.com.

Time to Celebrate Founder’s Day – The EAA’s 66th Birthday!

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Many of the FASF members throughout the country are active members of this great General Aviation organization, which was first begun in Wisconsin, 66 years ago this Saturday.  The majority of the two local or nearby EAA Chapters, the 555 in Las Cruces, NM, and the 1570 in Santa Teresa, NM, are active FASF members, for instance.  The growth of this non-profit aviation interest organization over the past 66 years is nothing short of phenomenal.

The EAA is  probably best known for its regular annual creation of the LARGEST AIR SHOW IN THE WORLD.  Each year at the organization’s headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the EAA hosts this huge AirVenture aviation extravaganza.

It’s a show that has been normally pulling in some half a million attendees each year, and this past season’s 2018 attendance hit 601,000.  Not just does it pull people in such large numbers to witness its exciting air show events, but it also brings in a record number of airplanes, too: 10,000 airplanes just this AirVenture 2018.  Usually held the from the last Monday in July each year, it runs for a full week.  People book at B&B’s, private homes, and Motels and Hotels a year in advance just to be sure they don’t miss this lavish exhibition of Aviation, from Civil to military. Many others use the ample campgrounds for tents or the more luxurious RV parking facilities.

Here, below, is a short (1:05 minute) FOUNDER’S DAY video clip to summarize the event. By clicking anywhere on this following image you will be taken directly to the EAA’s Founder’s Day homepage, where you can again click to see the video itself. While at the EAA site, you may want to see some of their other fascinating and informative videos, also accessible on that page.

Here below is the “Best of Photography,” a video collage of the some of the best photographs selected from the vast numbers taken and submitted for judging at AirVenture 2018.  The video is thanks the EAA itself, and for their efforts at choosing the top photos taken from those submitted this past year. The video (8:54 long) does a fine job of giving both the uninitiated – and the experienced AirVenturists, a clear idea of the vast plethora of colorful and impressive aircraft that gathered to show off during last July’s one-week celebratory convention in Oshkosh.  If at your computer, with a large screen monitor, remember to go full-screen to more deeply appreciate these fine photographs.

If you find this topic of enough interest, just do a search in our small search window at the above right side of this page, and enter the word “AirVenture” (without the quotation marks), and, voilà, you’ll find other great full-action videos we’ve posted over the years that cover various other AirVenture adventures.  Enjoy!

This last video (below) is 33 minutes of outstanding show material, all shot during the AirVenture 2018 event by the AirShowStuff professionals.  You will of course also find their homepage right where it has been listed on our LINKS page for many years. Visit them and see some of the most colorful and exceptional video of airplanes in action to be found anywhere. These people are masters at their craft.

 

 

A TRIP BACK IN TIME – THE AIRLINER THAT SHRUNK THE U.S.

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. . . and ushered in a new era for humankind. 

The inimitable Douglas DC-3, the airliner that changed the way the world traveled back in the mid to late 1930s, and that doggedly remains with us to this day (see 2nd video below), delivering cargo and people, often into places other more modern aircraft cannot safely fly.

The following video is from a promotional film from one of that famous airliner’s biggest customer-users, AMERICAN AIRLINES.

Your webmaster’s first ride on a DC-3 was beyond memorable.  It was back in 1948, when this airliner was still going strong.

I was visiting from the suburbs of Chicago, where I had lived most my life, and vacationing at my Grandmother’s in Hollywood, CA,, when I was suddenly wired by Western Union (remember those telegrams?) to report for my College Navy ROTC Physical Exam in NYC – – – in only a week.

I’d driven my car from Chicago for my first visit to California and it had taken me a grueling two week’s time to make the journey.  There was simply no way I could pack things up and report in NYC in only a week.

So, I immediately sold my car to a local dealer (I’d always sold autos on my own, after refurbishing them, for a handy profit) in a hurry, booked a ticket to Chicago with American Airlines, and flew back home to Chicago – – – on my first long airline flight, and in none other than that inimitable one-and-only Douglas DC-3!

When driving around CA and the LA area, we’d always honked whenever we saw another Illinois license plate drive by.  Interstate Freeways were still but a dream.  When I arrived in Chicago, I quickly reached over and honked my Mom’s horn at other passing cars – – – but she pointed out I was back home, where almost all the cars were from Illinois.

The short time it had taken me to fly home threw my sense of time and space completely off. But, I was now initiated –  by the DC-3 – into the realm of modern era long-distance air transportation!

Only 7 years later, now a college graduate and a USAF Pilot, I was given the privilege of actually being checked out to fly that same much admired DC-3, which we Air Force pilots affectionately called the “Gooney Bird” or C-47.  What a delightful plane it was to fly.  Easy to handle, stable as one would ever want, and, for a tail-wheeled airplane, still not hard to land.

However, after flying single-engined jets, where one sits only feet off the ground, this cockpit had me sitting almost two stories up. That was quite a change.

Without further ado, here’s the DC-3 story video, which is 25:12 in length.  Remember to keep your volume up – and to immediately switch to full-screen, so you can appreciate this film.

[As an aside: We’d like to bring your attention to the many other fascinating and meaningful peeks back into history provided by the good folks at Periscope Films.  Their catalog is loaded with great film/video materials on a broad variety of topics.  Check them out!]

And, here below, is another video, showing how we are now refurbishing this great workhorse flying machine, and making it good for many more years to come.  From THE AVIATORS Season 3 – “GIVING THE VENERABLE DC-3 NEW LIFE” – This video is just shy of 13:00 minutes long: