WALTER VAN TILBORG MEMORIAL COLLECTION
No. 12587. War Aircraft Replicas Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (F-PYQQ c/n 71)
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War Aircraft Replicas Republic P-47 Thunderbolt

09/30/2014. Remarks by Walter van Tilborg: "War Aircraft Replicas (WAR) was founded at Santa Paula, California, USA, in 1973 and the company specialized on the marketing of plans for amateur construction of scaled-down WW II fighters. The designs featured a generally similar construction with a wooden fuselage box and wings spars and had a retractable landing gear. The external shape was formed with Polyurethane foam, fabric and epoxy-resin. WAR`s aircraft were originally designed for VW-based engines of around 70 hp, but later also other engines were used.

The approximately 50% scale replica of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the third WAR design to take the air. The prototype was built in the USA by Gil Hallquist, with an 108 hp Lycoming O-235 engine and first flown in February 1980. Several additional aircraft appeared with other engines in the 70 to 115 hp range. In 1996, the type was re-launched by the new War Aircraft Replicas of Florida, Inc. with 100 to 130 hp engines. Examples of the WAR P-47 were also built in other countries such as France and the UK, and estimated between ten and twenty P-47 replica's have been completed, while the type was still available by 2014.

Construction of the pictured aircraft was started in 1980 by Maurice Mathieu of Gièvres, France, and initially flown from Aérodrome de Romorantin-Pruniers registered as F-WYQQ. After it received its CofA the aircraft was registered as F-PYQQ on February 10, 1984. Since May 13, 1997, it is registered to the Club Avion MFG at Asnières, and is based at the Aérodrome de Toussus-le-Noble near Paris."


Created September 30, 2014