P-47 THUNDERBOLT “NELLIE B” AT THE HISTORICAL AIRSHOW FOR THE FIRST TIME!

For the first time in this millennium, the largest single-engine fighter plane of its time, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt “Nellie B”, will arrive in the Czech Republic and will thus become the “HEADLINER” of this year’s 14th Contemporary Aviation Day 2024!
It is the largest and heaviest single-seat piston engine fighter aircraft in history and the most numerous American fighter aircraft ever built. It was a very successful escort aircraft at high altitudes and a formidable attack aircraft.
“Nellie” was built in 1945 at the Republic Evansville, Indiana factory. The aircraft was numbered 45-49192 and was originally built as a P-47D-40-RA. Details of his service with the USAAF are unknown,
although in the final months of the war he served with the AirTraining Command and was eventually stationed at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma with the Air Materiel Command. After the signing of the Rio Pact,
it was restored to full operational status at Hensley Field in Texas in 1952, and was entered into the military assistance program in September of that year.
In 1953, it became part of a group of P-47 aircraft that entered the Peruvian Air Force, where it served until 1967, first as a front-line fighter and then as a trainer fighter.
You can read more details about its history  here.

foto Jakub Vaněk