Originally Posted by
zippome 
Ok Guys, Here we go again!
1. This is a well known aircraft, seen around the world at airports and airshows all over.
2. This aircraft came a full circle with a plane designed for the civilian market, but was inspired by a warbird. This new aircraft then found a new market in the military.
3. Served in different roles in different militaries around the world.
4. The aircraft was produced in it's various forms , military and civilian for over 30 years.
5. The guys that designed this bird had built bombers .
6. Two of these aircraft were purchased to carry some precious cargo.
7. These 2 aircraft were to be the smallest in the lineage of aircraft built to carry out this mission.
8. These 2 aircraft also set the "tone" of all the aircraft that followed in it's mission.
9. A fighter pilot helped make this aircraft famous.
AP-4 demonstrator
the AP-10improved
P-44 Rocket
P-43 Lancer
the XP-47A
finally the XP-47B
In 1939,
Republic Aviation designed the
AP-4 demonstrator powered by a
Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine with a belly-mounted
turbocharger. While the resulting
Republic P-43 Lancer was in limited production, Republic had been working on an improved
P-44 Rocket with a more powerful engine, as well as on a fighter designated the
AP-10. The latter was a lightweight aircraft powered by the
Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V-12 engine and armed with eight
.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns. The
United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) backed the project and gave it the designation
XP-47.
As the war in
Europe escalated in spring 1940, Republic and the USAAC concluded that the XP-44 and the XP-47 were inferior to the German fighters. Republic unsuccessfully attempted to improve the design, proposing the
XP-47A. Kartveli subsequently came up with an all-new and much larger fighter which was offered to the USAAC in June 1940. The Air Corps ordered a prototype in September, to be designated the
XP-47B. The XP-47A, which had almost nothing in common with the new design, was abandoned.