Posted on 05/27/2016 7:25:09 PM PDT by jazusamo
NEW YORK A small World War II vintage plane celebrating its 75th anniversary crashed in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey on Friday, but the pilot suffered only minor injuries and was rescued, authorities said.
The pilot ditched the plane, a P-47 Thunderbolt, on a part of the river near where a US Airways commercial jet carrying 155 people splash-landed in 2009 in what became known as the Miracle on the Hudson.
The P-47 Thunderbolt pilot was the only person aboard, and he was being taken to a hospital, New Jersey state police Sgt. Jeffrey Flynn said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft, which went down near the George Washington Bridge,...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Horrible. Usually when you hear all the media copters the cops are looking for a perp in Riverside Park. Was hoping it wasn’t anything like this.
Me too, and it made them much better fighters because of the visibility.
I spend years helping maintain them with the confederate air force. Cruse speeds for the P-47 probably uses 40 gallons/hr($6.00 per) and dry sump oil tanks hold gallons of oil, not quarts. FiFi, the B-29 has four of them turning. So it probably cost 1500 per hour for her, including maintenance.
Parts are almost impossible to find and engines are all decades old now and have to be rebuilt as new ones are not available. They can only be rebuilt so many times before it is useless.
Boeing helped rebuild FiFi years ago when she had to be grounded when the fuel cells in the wings started leaking. Not available but Boeing had her flow to Seattle and they, at their cost, had new fuel cells manufactured as well they had a bunch of old retired line personel do ton of work on her. I really believe before long the old birds will finally have to be parked for good.
Excellent point.
I remember hearing on a war documentary one old pilot saying it was great to be 20 years old and to have your government hand you a brand new Mustang that could go 400 mph.
Imagine all that power in the hands of a 20 year old!
Thanks for relating that, Boeing is to commended for doing that.
I was fortunate to have visited the Confederate Air Force museum and hangers in Harlingen, TX in the late 70’s, it was very impressive.
At the time they were working on a P-38 Lighting in a hanger, it was a beauty.
Just read New York Post article and it says 46th Street, but also about two miles south of the George Washington Bridge (which would be about 80th Street). Not that this is important but it seemed to me to be farther north than 46th.
It looks like if they were making new ones they could be partners with the A-10s on the battlefields today.
The F6F Hellcat was the plane with the 2nd most kills followed by the P47.
old curmudgeon wrote:
Shows how ignorant the press is about airplanes,,,,and Lord knows what else. The P-47 is no small plane. In its day it was one hell of a mean machine.
Glad somebody caught that. Its pretty obvious that this report generated by the AP and picked up by FOX just demonstrates just how unreliable and lazy news reporting has become. From the top tip of the propeller to the bottom the span is about 15 feet. Its engine was around 6 feet in circumference. It was one of the biggest single seat/engine fighters like the Corsair we had during WWII.
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