Last Saturday when Don and I drove to the air show, he mentioned a Youtube video of an old War Department film on assembling a P-47 in the field. He sent the link to me, and now to you.
The United States had a unique challenge in World War II - it was thousands of miles from the theaters of conflict (we should always have such problems, right?). It was a major logistical challenge to get the tools of war to the front. This is a creative solution for getting fighter planes from factory to airfield overseas: ship it in a big crate and then have a crew assemble it on the spot.
No power tools were involved. After watching this I must confess to having a whole new appreciation for the term "Greatest Generation". Oh, and Don (retired Air Force) points out that the pilots who took the birds on that first flight were pretty tough hombres.
There's a good book about Torpedo Squadron 8 called "A Dawn Like Thunder," written by Robert J. Mrazek. It contains a similar story.
ReplyDeleteAfter half the squadron was destroyed at Midway (the other half was out of the combat zone being equipped with new TBF Avengers), the squadron was sent to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. Because of constant attacks on the airfield and supply problems, the squadron was always short of aircraft. The mechanics and maintenance crews built a complete TBF from the parts of damaged planes. They called it the Frankenbomber, and actually flew a few missions in it.
Well worth a read.
I saw an article talking about how the P47 was actually started with a pistol cartidge.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/coffman-combustion-starters/
DeletePretty common starting system to save weight.
Great story. Thanks for sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteThe Thunderbolt could be started with either an inertial starter (shown), or a black powder charge (if available). And that wasn't a single day evolution to assemble one. It's a credit to Republic that they COULD be field assembled with hand tools due to their preplanned instructions.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we could find a warehouse with a bunch of big boxes inside, like the $75.00 Jeeps that were supposed to be war surplus. Just get 50 of your friends to help put the wings on when you do find some kits!
ReplyDeleteThe P-47 was a famous durable plane. One pilot flew it through a brick wall in Europe and it didn't phase it.
ReplyDelete