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[barrett_g]

Every American that knows a little about the air war loves the P-51... But no one realizes it was the P-47 that paved the way for success in WWII.  Before the P-51 was created, the P-47 was holding it's own against Luftwaffe's aces.  The P-47 also did a tremendous job as a ground attack aircraft.  No wonder 15,660 P-47's were built, making the P-47 the most produced allied fighter.

In IL-2, there are corsair packs, P-51 packs, and P-40 packs....  I think the P-47 deserves it's own pack!!!

Thanks to Kumpel we received the 30 and 40 models... 101tfs, Kumpel, and Crazyflak brought us the N-15 model... Spitwulf just recently presented the C-5 model... PA_Jeronimo fixed the props, spinners, and tires... And Poncho brought us new pits... And the ability to open up the stock canopies.  I believe Freddy also has some very nice cockpits as well.

Thanks to all the modders that have touched the P-47, my list is fleshed out with some of the most important models of P-47's.

What would be nice, now, is if some one could take all these mods, make a few small tweaks, and compile them into a P-47 pack.  The P-47 is 99.9% done.  Let's get it finished and wrap them all up!



Step 1:  Fix oil cooler flap alignment

The very first "tweak" would be the adjustment of the variable oil cooler door.  Hopefully someone skilled in 3D programs could "bump" the oil cooler flap out some... so that it doesn't get swallowed by the airframe when it is in the full closed position:



If that's possible it would be a good mod for all the P-47 models... all models of the P-47 have this oil cooler flap and each model is affected by it.  I have no experience with 3DS max or anything like that, but I think this would be an easy adjustment.

Step 2:  Remove air deflector on B and C models

The second refinement would be the removal of the air deflector right in front of the exhaust pipe on P-47B and C-5 models.



This terrible picture shows the top plane (B-model) with the deflector removed and the variable cowl much closer to the exhaust.

The bottom airplane in the pic is a C-5 model.  You can see the variable cowl is further away from the exhaust pipe.. The space between the cowl and the exhaust pipe is where the deflector was finally added starting on the D-10 model (which is correct in-game)

Step 3:  Moving turbo intercooler doors

Another thing missing from the D and newer P-47 models is the movable turbo inter cooler doors.


According to http://www.368thfightergroup.com/P-47-2.html ... the "B" and "C" models didn't have them.  Hopefully a modder can make the P-47D-10 and newer P-47's have the adjustable intercooler doors... though it seems to me that it would be a more difficult mod!!!



Optional

I think another easily made model would be the P-47D-01.  Pilots flying the P-47C models complained of engine overheating issues.  Republic created more cowl flaps starting with the D-01.  These flaps were square on the first model, and then "indented" on later D models.  It's a small visual difference... but being that it shouldn't be too hard to make... it would be worth while to include in a "P-47 pack."






Once last thing for the P-47 would be to make all 8 .50 cals fire with one trigger press.  Spitwulf got it right when he made his C-5 model.  As it is now (inboards fire with button one, outboards fire with button two) it could almost be considered a cheat, by making your ammo last twice as long.  (Edit:  I have read a few reports that stated some pilots had their mechanics "field mod" their aircraft to fire outboard/inboard as they do currently in game.)

These three things could perfect the P-47 and finish it off.  There not huge glaring issues, but they were things I noticed and thought that putting them together and sharing the video would make a worthwhile request.

Thank you,
Barrett

[SAS~Malone]

decent request - however, how do you know that the pics you have, for instance, of the deflector, are any more accurate than some others? those don't look like photo's, but rather profile arts, which very often get some of these details wrong.
i'm no Jug expert (other than the ones i can hold in my hands  ), so i stand to be corrected, but you hopefully know where i'm coming from with that?

[barrett_g]

You're right.  The deflector door pic was a profile drawing.  And often times they are wrong.

I own two books by Roger Freeman on P-47s.  One is "56th Fighter Group" and the other is "P-47 Thunderbolt Units Of The Eighth Air Force."

After looking through all the profile pics in these two books and referring to photographs I decided they were pretty accurate.



Here is a photo of a P-47C-5.

Several photos of P-47C-1, P-47C-2, P-47D-1, and P-47D-5s have this type of lower cowl.

From photos I can't really tell when the deflector was added.  The list of profile art... Which in this case seem to be pretty accurate, show the P-47D-10 as being the first model to have the deflector.

Unfortunately, there are very few "B" model photos... And most of those photos are shaded in the deflector door area.  We can assume it doesn't have the deflector door... But I can't prove it being any different than a "C" or early "D" model.  I do know the "B" model had a shorter nose... So the profile drawing "made sense" to me.

I'll keep looking... I'm very intrigued now and it's a mystery that I wanna solve!  LOL!

[barrett_g]

Over the past 2 days I've searched high and low over the internet trying to find good pics and sources on various mods done to P-47's throughout it's service life.  Unfortunately, most sources contradict each other.  Usually because older P-47's were "retrofitted" once a mod was approved by Republic.

The main topic I have been seaching for is the Oil Cooler deflector.  Here's what I've found:

P-47B

Here are the P-47B photos I found:







While they are not the best, I think you can tell that only the oil cooler flap is present and the deflector is not added yet.

P-47C

For a really good photo of a P-47C look in my previous post.  You can clearly see that there is no deflector door added behind the oil cooler flap.  Another good photo is of "In The Mood."





These photos of "In The Mood" are important because it's a P-47D-1.  It proves that all "C" models have this particular oil cooler flap orientation and it is carried into the early "D" models.

(Note that "In The Mood"'s cowl has added "square" cooler flaps instead of the "indented" flaps found on later "D" models.)  Since the earliest "D" model in the game is a D-10 it is correct.  It would be cool if someone would make a new slot for a D-1 and mod the flaps so they are square.

Hopefully a modder would be able to open up the "B" and "C-5" models that are available for IL-2 and delete the deflector that is after the variable oil cooler flap and before the wastegate exhaust.

While they are in there... maybe they could "bump" the oil cooler flap out some... so that it doesn't get swallowed by the airframe when in the full closed position:



If that's possible it would be a good mod for all the P-47's... though I don't know if it's easy or not???  I have no experience with 3DS max or anything like that.

Now... as far as the adjustable turbo intercooler doors (see first post for video) on the P-47's aft fuselage.... according to http://www.368thfightergroup.com/P-47-2.html ... the "B" and "C" models didn't have them... so they are correct as they are in the game.

Hopefully a modder can make the P-47D-10 and newer P-47's have the adjustable intercooler doors... though it seems to me that it would be a more difficult mod!!!

Lastly I hope someone follows through with what Spitwulf did with his C-5 and makes all 8 .50 cals fire at once.  All P-47's should fire this way.  Like I said in my first post... to split them up almost seems like a cheat in order to conserve ammo.

Hopefully these mods will come about... at the very least.. I've learned alot about my favorite WWII fighter... and that's what it's really all about!

Thanks!
Barrett