P47 Thunderbolt

The P-47 Thunderbolt is one of the most Iconic aircraft in all of World War II and one of the more successful fighters utilized by the USAAF. The Thunderbolt often earned a reputation as "a beer bottle with wings" due to it's stubby and small profile.

In Real Life

The Thunderbolt was an aircraft developed by the now defunct Republic company during the Second World War. American fighter design during the early part of the war favored survivability over all else. The Thunderbolt supplied this in droves, and returned the favor by having no less than EIGHT Browning .50 Calibre machine guns.

The Thunderbolt lacked the manueverability of other aircraft, such as the Spitfire, Mustang, or BF 109, but they got around this in two ways. The First was that American Pilots didn't give a shit and just flew into battles guns blazing. In fact the Germans were often shocked by the balls out suicidal bravery American Pilots presented. Given that said batshit insane pilots also have eight .50 cals and a highly armored aircraft did not make things any easier. The second factor was that P-47's dive. A common tactic for P-47 pilots was to gain altitude, dive towards whatever poor idiot that made themselves a target, and hold down the trigger until said thing suffered a critcal existence failure.

Later in the war and even into Korea, the Thunderbolt developed a secondary reputation as an effective fighter-bomber, providing close air support for ground units and advancing armies. The latter part of the air war in Europe had General Ike order his P-47's to strafe Luftwaffe airfields to great effect, though this decision was not terribly popular among bomber crews at the time.