The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, known affectionately as the “Jug” or “Juggernaut,” is one of the toughest, most rugged designs of combat aircraft to have taken to the sky during World War II. Conceived by Georgian-born innovative genius Alexander Kartveli, the P-47 was designed as a lightweight interceptor. However, when events in Europe made plain that heavier warplanes were called for, Republic Aviation gave the design a second thought and in quick order created a heavyweight warbird capable of giving quite a decent account of itself.
It was the largest, heaviest, and costliest fighter single-piston engine-powered aircraft ever built in the history of fighters. The P-47 was armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns—four in each wing—and carried quite a bomb load of 2,500 pounds. This made the P-47 capable of delivering a payload equivalent to more than half that of the B-17 Flying Fortress during long-range missions, although the latter had much greater range.
But the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp-powered P-47 would do so much more: climb to over 40,000 feet, and level out at over 440 mph. Perhaps most impressively, though, for such a big machine, the 2,600 horsepower, 18-cylinder engine allowed this behemoth of a fighter to stay in formation with its kid brother, the North American P-51 Mustang. But with a maximum range of little more than 800 miles, it flew but half as far as the Mustang.
First combat was done in April 1943, and quickly, the P-47 proved itself worth doing everything from bomber escort to close air support. In Europe and the Pacific, it flew over half a million sorties, claiming almost 4,000 enemy aircraft, 9,000 trains, 86,000 trucks, and 6,000 armored vehicles. When it came to air-ground missions, nothing could compare with the Thunderbolt. Historians go so far as to say that it is number one as the most effective fighter-bomber in World War II.
The cockpit in the heavy, rear-fuselage-mounted P-47 was generous and offered the pilot good visibility. This added to its reputation for being hard to shoot down. Its ruggedness and firepower earned the Thunderbolt its endearing nickname among pilots as the “Jug.”
More than 15,600 Thunderbolts were built between 1941 and 1945 for service in every theater of the war. This included the U.S. Army Air Forces during most of the war, as well as the air forces of other Allied nations including France, Britain, and Russia. U.S.-equipped squadrons from Mexico and Brazil also flew these planes.
Officially redesignated F-47 following Japan’s surrender, the Thunderbolt also served for a long time. The U.S. removed the aircraft from front-line service in 1949, but NATO allies such as Turkey, Portugal, and Italy operated squadrons of Thunderbolts through the 1950s. Latin American countries flew them until the 1960s; Peru did not retire its Jugs until 1966.
One P-47D-40 RA was delivered to the USAAF in July 1945, and served various National Guard and Air Force Reserve units before being dispatched to Peru, is now restored and resides in Harlingen, Texas. It is one of only three existing P-47s that have an operational turbocharger installed.
Thus, it is that the name of the P-47 Thunderbolt continues to live into current times within the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, an indelible stamp of Kartveli’s innovative design affecting military air power.