The Biggest, Heaviest American May 24 2015
Hey! This weekend being the Memorial Day weekend is my personal-annual-Saving Private Ryan-Band of Brothers- screening weekend. Hope you all have a good, grateful and thoughtful holiday.
Just for Trivia:
The biggest and heaviest American single engine airplane was the P-47 Thunderbolt (or jug).
It used the same engine that the Corsair and the Hellcat (both fighters used in the Pacific and carrier based), the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine which was rated at 2,000hp.
In Robin Olds's book, Fighter Pilot, it is mentioned that during WWII many squadrons would transition from whatever they had (say P-38s)to P-51s, that there were indeed some squadrons transitioning from P-51s to P-47. So it is not definitive that the P-51 was superior to the P-47 (I would say). I am not sure of what that could mean of the reasons for it, but I can only speculate that it would depend on the mission. The P-47 was heavily armed and could carry a big load of bombs making it an effective ground attach aircraft.
