This whole series was great. Saw it on PBS. Too bad I didn't record it.

The Thunderbolt is my favorite WWII airplane of all time. 8 .50 cal machine guns. The airplane could get the shiz kicked out of it and it could still fly. Awesome vid man. The A-10 Warthog, Thunderbolt II is an admirable decendant.

Cool.

 

I was at the Palm Springs Air Museum couple weeks ago. It has a bunch of European and Pacific Theatre fighters and a B17 all in flying condition! There were WWII pilots giving talks about their stories. One was a P47 pilot who was shot down some 9 times over France. He said how he had to crash land in a field which was in Enemy territory. One guy in his squadron landed to pick him up but the P47 is a 1 seater so he had to sit in the seat while his buddy sat on his lap and flew them both back to base. If that wasn't amazing enough a story his next mission out he had finished strafing some ground units when it was time to head back. On the route back he and his squad saw a Railyard with trucks and Krauts unloading boxes of ammo. He was aready lined up so he dropped down and opened up on 1 railcar and in an instant the entire railyard blew up and his plane was engulfed in a fireball that went up like 1000 ft. He said he came out of it without a canopy and bits of rail car in the leading egdes of his plane and in his shoulder. When he landed the plane was uncontrollabe and flipped forward maiking it do a headstand. Turned out his tires where completely melted off and railyard and other crap had gone through almost every part of the engine cowl.

Thought that was a great story and a testament to the toughness of those planes and their pilots and is worth all the typing. As if that wasnt cool enough. there was a flight demonstration of a P51 making low level passes afterward.