Commemorative Air Force Readies Tools

Founded in Montgomery, Alabama in 1953 and originally led by fictional characters Thaddeus P. Throckmorton and his recruiting officer Jethro Culpepper, the Commemorative (nee Confederate) Air Force has evolved into America’s premier historic aircraft preservation society. The organization has approximately 13,000 members and lays claim to the world’s largest, most comprehensive collection of airworthy warbirds.

Currently, the CAF owns a staggering 181 aircraft ranging in size from diminutive Stinson L-5 Sentinels to one of only two Boeing B-29 Superfortresses still thundering around the world’s skies. The aircraft are distributed across 69-U.S. and three international wings. Referred to in the aggregate, the CAF’s fleet is known as the Ghost Squadron.

The CAF’s Georgia airbase recently came into possession of a rare and wondrous Republic P-47 Thunderbolt—all the pieces thereof, anyway—to which the facility’s mechanics, fabricators, and artisans will presently turn their attention and expertise.

Expected to be a long-term restoration project, the P-47, when complete, will take its place among the Dauntless SBD dive-bomber, P-51 Mustang, FG-1D Corsair, P-63 Kingcobra, and other storied aircraft of which the Georgia Airbase’s noteworthy fleet consists.

CAF Airbase Georgia leader Joel Perkins states: “We are proud that Airbase Georgia has been selected to restore this important piece of WWII history. Our skilled mechanics will restore and replace parts and eventually complete the P-47 by adding an engine and modern avionics. This will require painstaking work, but the final product will be a beautiful, flying warbird that will serve the mission of the CAF, be in demand for air-shows around the country, and inspire the next generation of pilots, mechanics and citizens.”

The P-47 Thunderbolt was designed around the powerful Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial engine—which it shared with Grumman’s F6F Hellcat, and Vought’s F4U Corsair. Nicknamed the Jug in jest of its portly fuselage, the P-47 was renowned for its abilities to both dish out and suck-up punishment. The annals of WWII abound with accounts of horrifically shot-up P-47s returning to base, then being patched-up and returned to combat in matters of hours. The offensive clout of the Thunderbolt’s eight, (yes, eight) wing-mounted, fifty-caliber machine-guns was described by an American general as being equal in destructive force to a 5-ton truck hitting a brick wall at 60-miles-per-hour.

The savage and superb, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, takes its name—fittingly—from the P-47.

FMI: www.commemorativeairforce.org, www.facebook.com/CAFAirbaseGeorgia