Jan

November/December Dakota Territory Air Museum P-47 Update

January 21, 2022

Randy has been working on the flap hinges.

Update

Finishing details on the wings, gear doors, and control surfaces continued this month. Fuselage work included the cockpit enclosure, empennage fairings, turbosupercharger assembly, and permanently attaching the tail surfaces.

Wings

Here is a close look at the flap hinge.

Grease pencil and marker notes by the restoration guys indicate tasks yet to be completed.

The right wing is completed except for the gun and ammunition bay doors, flaps, and ailerons.

The top side of the right wing, with the gun and ammunition bay doors yet to be installed.

Gear Doors

Each gear door is designed in two pieces to allow for the shortening of the main landing gear legs as they retract.

Neil presses a rivet on one of the main landing gear doors.

Neil and Theo work on the landing gear door.

Many parts have grease pencil marks on them from notations the factory workers made. That is especially true of the landing gear doors we are using.

All of the marks have been traced and duplicated on the newly painted surfaces.

It is speculation, but perhaps this inscription noted that the assembly was done by the “nite” shift.

The “14 Nite” notation appears twice inside the gear door.

The parts with two holes in them on either side of the landing gear axle are mounting blocks for the lower gear doors.

This view shows the upper side of the mounting block.

Rudder and Flaps

Brad works on the rudder trim tab.

The rudder skins are riveted and the rudder is complete except for the trim tab.

Cory continues to assemble the left flap.

The flap leading edge skin is clecoed in place for riveting.

Fuselage

The flaps, ailerons, elevators, and the rudder are the last large components of the P-47 to be assembled.

Randy Carlson and Randy Kraft get ready to work on the empennage fillets.

This is a view of the empennage from directly astern.

Yellow tape is used to mark off measurements for the fillets.

The part attached with the red stained bolts is an elevator hinge bracket.

The rudder light harness hangs in front of the rear fuselage. Also visible are the two rudder cable end fittings (protruding from ovoid holes center left and right).

The black part with red capped tubes is an oil separator for the vacuum system. Slightly above that and to the left (with a lever attached to the upper surface) is the cam mechanism assembly for controlling the Curtiss Electric prop.

Cockpit

The red box is the IFF destructor switch. It was sourced as new old stock and the paint is original 1944. Slightly left of center, the box with a single dial rheostat is the transmitter control. To the left of the transmitter control is the round oxygen regulator. Below that, with three dials, is the receiver control box.

Cockpit Enclosure

The top section of the windshield is clecoed to the windshield assembly.

Here is a side view of the windshield.

The movable portion of the cockpit enclosure is progressing.

Sliding cockpit enclosure from the front.

The sliding portion of the cockpit enclosure is positioned on the fuselage for fitting.

Turbosupercharger

The upper section of the turbosupercharger is where the air is compressed. Here, the lower half of the upper section casing and the diffuser have been mounted.

Pete has been working hard to get the turbosupercharger ready for installation.

The sumps for the fuel strainer drain, auxiliary, and main fuel tanks are shown in this image.

Cowl

Work continues on fabricating the cowl as time for installation of the restored engine nears.

Here one of the cowl formers is clamped for test fitting.

The former is now attached to the cowl assembly fixture.

Cowl supports are used to attach the cowl ring to the assembly fixture.

Cowl supports attached, ready for the next cowl ring.

WWII Advertisements for the P-47

Official U.S Army poster for the P-47

Republic Aviation Advertisements

This March 1941 ad is a very early example, since the first P-47 test flight (the XP-47B) did not take place until May 6, 1941.

It interestingly emphasizes an order for 773 P-47s that had been signed in September of 1940, basically a case of ordering the new fighter right off the drawing board before a flying example existed.

Photo AirCorps Art

This Republic ad emphasizes the P-47’s diving speed, photo AirCorps Art

This company ad emphasizes high altitude performance and bomber escort with text like “Our backyard is the stratosphere”, photo AirCorps Art

Republic mentions the future of commercial high altitude flight in this ad, suggesting the technology developed for the P-47 as the forerunner of high speed peacetime high altitude airliners. photo AirCorps Art

Supremacy in the stratosphere is the catchphrase of this Republic advertisement. Photo AirCorps Art

Bomber escort is the theme of this advertisement for the P-47 Thunderbolt “strato-fighter”photo AirCorps Art

Subcontractor’s P-47 Related Ads

Proud to be one of the P-47’s suppliers B.F. Goodrich made not only tires, but also de-icers, expander tube brakes, and feed shoes as this ad tells us. AirCorps Art

Curtiss Electric props were used on most P-47s, though Hamilton Standard hydraulically actuated props were also used in some cases, notably on the D-22 and D-25 versions of the P-47D

A poster from the collections of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum depicts a striking visual of the P-47's reputation for rugged reliability. NASM

Model Airplanes News magazine’s cover depicted the P-47 on its December 1942 issue. Model plane building was extremely popular both pre war and during WWII, and every young model builder wanted to create a small replica of the latest Army Air Force fighter. The artist responsible for this work is Jo Kotula, who drew the covers for Model Airplane News and Popular Science for decades.