Walkaround - Republic P-47D Thunderbolt S/N 42-26760

 What:
Walkaround - Republic P-47D Thunderbolt S/N 42-26760
Where:
Museu Asas de um Sonho (Wings of a Dream Museum) at São Carlos, Brazil.
When:
June 2nd, 2007.




Here are a few photos of the P-47D 42-26760 currently on display at the "Museu Asas de um Sonho" (Wings of a Dream Museum), located in São Carlos, Brazil. If memory serves me well, this is the Thunderbolt which used to be at the Museu da Aeronáutica in the Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo. If so, then it spent its good share of time abandoned in a hangar at Cotia town. After a long negotiation, the aircraft was loaned from Fundação Santos Dumont (the long time owner) and restored at the museum's shop.

The current painting depicts B-5, originally the P-47D s/n 42-29265 flew by 2nd F.Lt. Fernando Correa da Rocha (crew: Sgt. Schmidt and Cp. Sebastião). Lt. Rocha flew 75 missions during WWII. The finish is a good example of the camouflage style adopted by BAF at the end of Italian campaign during the war, when the olive drab/neutral gray cammo was replaced by natural metal. BAF P-47's would fly stateside with this basic finish until their retirement in early fifties.

I hope you find these photos useful somehow. If you have any interesting information about the history of this aircraft, please drop me a line.


Rato Marczak © 2010