Word: thunderbolt
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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More bombers dropped out of the overcast, ghosted through long streamers of cloud below. Their job was easier: the target area could be plainly seen. They made short bombing runs, unloaded while Thunderbolt fighters took on the German pursuit in short, angry dogfights. Then the bombers crawled back into the clouds and headed for home...
...Other formations, including Fortresses, bombed and strafed every airfield from which German planes could have taken off to repel invaders. Swarms of fighters, on escort and on independent sweeps, took and held absolute command of the sky above the coastland. Behind the coastal area, near Paris, Fortresses and escorting Thunderbolt fighters staged a great raid with a double purpose: to bomb an aircraft-engine works and to engage the only sizable force of German fighters which appeared over France that...
...Training Thunderbolt pilots is tricky business-one reason why the plane was delayed in reaching combat. There is no room for an instructor in the cockpit. The pilot is on his own in mastering speeds of 420-plus m.p.h., learning how to pull out of 680-m.p.h. power dives that can hurtle the P47 to safety when its ammunition is exhausted. In early days, many a student pilot forgot that a Thunderbolt can dive a mile in six screeching seconds, needs thousands of feet for the simplest maneuvers...
More to Come. Although the P47 is now being turned out in quantity, the plane still has a long way to fly before the Army will be wholly satisfied. That is one reason why other theaters have yet to report the Thunderbolt in action. It is not as good at dog-fighting as the Spitfire IX, its range is limited, its rate of climb is slow. But engineers are already eying the huge air-cooled motor for an added 300- 400 h.p., to get both faster climb and top speeds not far below 500 m.p.h. If that happens, says...
...Complained an R.A.F. squadron leader after staring expectantly at a Thunderbolt: "They told me she was flying fully loaded. I've seen the pilot get out - but where are the troops...