Sunday, November 16, 2008

Jug

P-47 ThunderboltHere's a P-47 Thunderbolt, affectionately known by its pilots and crew as "Jug" because of it's jug-shaped fusalage.

A good air combat fighter and a superior ground attack aircraft, the P-47 was the largest single-engine fighter of WWII.

This one is at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Immediately behind the P-47 is the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 bomber, and the very aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.

In the background at right is the Boeing 367-80, or "Dash 80", as the Boeing engineers used to refer to it. The Dash 80 was the prototype for the 707, the first American commercial jet airliner capable of non-stop transatlantic flight.

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