P-47 em voo picado

[JambockCardoso]

Alguém sabe a mais ou menos que velocidade o P-47 chegava em voo picado?

[42_Hildebrand]

S!

Uns 800km/h, 850km/h. Acho.

SP!

[40_Griffon]

Em uma revista de aviação que tenho em casa, está escrito que a versão N podia alcançar em um mergulho 875km/h.
Passando disso já começava a "soltar os parafusos"

[JambockCardoso]

HUm, será que tal velocidade se aplica à versão D?

[21_Sokol1]

"The Thunderbolt could drop like a brick, which was an advantage in air battles. Luftwaffe pilots would find out that trying to break off combat and dive away was sheer suicide when fighting a Thunderbolt. The P-47 could easily reach 885 KPH (550 MPH) in a dive, and some Thunderbolt pilots claimed it could even break the sound barrier, but it appears that the airspeed indicator simply went crazy at high speeds. One pilot said: "I have never seen a plane that could get rid of such appalling hunks of altitude in so short a time." At the outset it was sluggish in a climb, "like a brick" was common comment. One pilot said: "By God it ought to dive -- it certainly won't climb."

"It's hard to say with accuracy what maximum airspeed was attained. To begin with, standard production instruments weren't capable of test-quality recording. But mostly, I was too focused on the ground to give much attention to the instrument panel. In each dive, the needle was jammed on the stop, so it's a good educated guess that maximum speed reached 650 - 670 miles per hour (1.046 - 1.078 KMH). I know that the tech manual warned against indicated air speed over 400 MPH above 25,000 feet, but we regularly ignored the manual in this and other limitations.

I'm certain of one thing, though. I've heard pilots who claim to have reached Mach 1 in a P-47, but no propeller-driven airplane ever reached Mach 1 - not even the mighty Thunderbolt. It's just not possible, because, at that speed, the propeller no longer delivers thrust, becoming instead a drag which prevents further acceleration.

Sokol1