P-47 The ultimate Fighter

It is not unusual to favor your own aircraft. In fact, it is a bit common. We probably all look at this in a different way, and in a different light. And if you didn't get to fly both the Jug and the Mustang, you were at a decided disadvantage. Here are my dozen reasons why the T-bolt was the superior fighter of the two.

1. The Republic Thunderbolt had a radial engine that could take hits and keep on running. I know of an actual case where a Jug brought a pilot back from Borneo after 8 hours in the air. The pilot landed with the master cylinder and three other cylinders blown out of commission. But the Jug kept chugging along, running well enough to bring its pilot back safely to his base at Morotai. I was there.

2. The Jug's radial engine was air cooled, instead of liquid cooled with a radiator system, like the Mustang's V-12. This is significant because one small caliber hit on an aluminum cooling line in a Mustang would let the coolant leak out, and when the coolant was gone, the engine seized, and the show was over.

I took a small caliber hit in a coolant tube over Formosa (Taiwan). When I landed back at base, my crew chief said, "Lieutenant, did you know you got hit?" I replied, "No." He continued, "You took a small caliber shell in the coolant tube on the right side of the engine. I'd give you between 10 and 15 minutes flying time remaining." I had just flown from Formosa, over nothing but the Pacific Ocean, to our fighter strip on Okinawa.

3. The P-47 could fly higher than the P-51. With its huge turbocharger, it could climb to over 40,000 feet. You could just look down at your enemy in a stall and smile.

4. The Jug could out dive the Mustang. As a matter of fact, it could out dive any enemy fighter, and at 7.5 tons loaded, it dove fast! I have personally been in a dive at what we called the "state of compressibility," at nearly 700 mph indicated air speed. I was scared to death, but with a tiny bit of throttle, I pulled it out at about 2,000-foot altitude, literally screaming through the sky.

5. The Thunderbolt had eight .50's. The Mustang had six. That's 33 1/3% more firepower. This made a major difference.

6. The later model Thunderbolt's could carry and deliver 2,500 pounds of bombs. (One 1,000-lb. bomb on each wing, and one 500 lb. bomb under the belly.) This was a maximum load and you had to use water injection to get airborne. But it would do this with sufficient runway. I have done this myself.

In addition to being a first class fighter, it was also a superb fighter-bomber and ground level strafer. Jugs practically wiped out the German and Italian railroads. I have strafed Japanese trains, troops, ships, gunboats, warships, airfields, ammo dumps, hangers, antiaircraft installations, you name it. I felt secure in my P-47.

7. The P-47 was larger and much stronger, in case of a crash landing. The Jug was built like a machined tool. Mustangs had a lot of sheet metal stamped out parts, and were more lightweight in construction. One example was the throttle arm. You can see the difference. What does all this mean? The safety of the fighter pilot.

8. The Thunderbolt had no "scoop" under the bottom. You can imagine what happens during a crash landing if your wheels would not come down (due to damage or mechanical trouble). On landing, it could make the P-51 nose over in the dirt as the scoop drags into the earth. In water (and I flew over the Pacific Ocean most of my 92 combat missions), it could cause trouble in a crash landing because the air scoop would be the first part of the aircraft to hit the water. Instead of a smooth belly landing, anything might happen.

9. The Thunderbolt had a much larger, roomier cockpit. You were comfortable in the big Jug cockpit. In my Mustang, my shoulders almost scraped the sides on the right and left. I was cramped in with all my "gear." I could not move around like I could in the P-47. I found the ability to move a little bit very desirable, especially on seven and eight hour missions.

10. The Mustang went from 1,150-horse power Allison engines to the Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that had 1,590 hp. The Thunderbolt started out with a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney engine, and ended up with 2,800 war emergency hp with water injection. That's close to twice the power.

11. The Jug had a very wide landing gear. This made it easy to land just about anywhere, with no tendency to ground loop. Many times we had to land on rice paddies and irregular ground. When you set the Thunderbolt down, it was down. In the Far East, England, Africa, and Italy, this helped you get down and walk away from it. To me, that was very important for the safety of the pilot.

12. The Jug's record against all opposing aircraft is remarkable. The ratio of kills to losses was unmistakably a winner. Thunderbolt pilots destroyed a total of 11,874 enemy aircraft, over 9,000 trains, and 160,000 vehicles.

But, the big factor, above all else, it saved pilots in great numbers. Ask most fighter pilots who flew both in active combat and they will tell you that, given a choice to fly either one in combat, it would be the Juggernaut hands down.

Now one last thing: the P-51 Mustang was a superb fighter. I am fully aware of that! But, considering that I flew about every kind of mission the Pentagon could dream up, and a few they didn't know about, I will rate that 8 tons of destruction first as long as I live, and no one can change my mind. I was there. Simply walk up to one of them and see for yourself.

The dictionary defines "juggernaut" as: "any large, overpowering, destructive force or object." That was the P-47 of World War II.

Sounds like me "large, overpowering, and destructive." Call me the JUGGERNAUT.

I like the jug as long as I got time to climb it to +5000ft above the furball, and/or divebomb a CV.

In this game though, as I write this, I can't even figure the last time a jug has beat me in a dogfight..

checking my expanded stats for last month... apparently I killed 18 p47's and was killed only 9 times by p47's (all variants).. But that also counts getting bombed in gv's by them

Hmm i got 13 kills vs 6 death to jugs. I tink only 1 was an air to air kill. And he picked me .

Jugs are not suppose to dogfight in this game. They should stay above and pick their tagets carfully.
I have only seen a handfull guys that really mastered that jug.

I have to say what I like best about the 47, 51 and 38 as well as the 40 is that they are easier kills than most other fighters in the game.

Now the f6 and f4 are a different story.

Before you laugh Klingan I got around 160 figther kills in fighters last tour. I ve fought people who were obviously far better than me in 51's and 47's when I was in a spit and inevitably killed them as soon as we got co alt co e.

My K/D in fighters was only 0.9 but against 51's and 47's it was higher even with GV kilis included.

I think if your all time favourite fighter is a 47 and you want to fly it as a fighter in this game you have a hill to climb.

Well since you gone from a K/D of 0.29 Tour 98 to a K/D of 0.86 Tour 101, I have a hard time finding anything funny in 160 fighter kills.

That is progress in my eyes


And actually the P-51 is the only plane that killed me more times than i killed it

I love the JUG. I can fight with it. Yeah I dont turn fight. I BZ and pick but I dont fucking care. I fly alot of planes but I always come back to the JUG. Whatever.

I thihnk thats what we're saying thud.... most ppl dont fly it properly, and they DO try to turn fight with it..

I don't fly LW much, but I do know the P-47 is like a house when it's slow. Trying to turn fight in that is just asking for a swarm of Spits, N1K's and La-7's on your tail.

Ill take on a slow jug with almost anything. But take i guy like JensK. He will sucker u in thinking he is low and slow. And BANG he did something (Ill never get it) and u are dead. I have seen him 1 VS 4 and he makes THEM run away

So be very afraid for the Jug with a ace behind the sticks

Here's some pics of a P47D-40. This thing is huge. I was very shocked at the oversize engine on this baby. All it takes in this game is a good pilot to fly anything in here. Thudman I really enjoyed your first hand knowledge and respect your opinions.

It is a house! A well armed and armored house at that.

Klingan wrote:

So be very afraid for the Jug with a ace behind the sticks

No doubt, I'm not afraid of any plane, just the pilot who's behind it. There what really makes the plane.

Dustin57 wrote:

Klingan wrote:

So be very afraid for the Jug with a ace behind the sticks

No doubt, I'm not afraid of any plane, just the pilot who's behind it. There what really makes the plane.

I got shot down by a JU87 in a furball on thursday night

It is the pilot who always scares me. Jenks is the ultimate JUG driver. I really dont know how he does it. I have DA experience with the JUG with him and I cant even begin to do it right.