Moving right along in their aircraft monographs, we have the latest from MMP Books on the 'bubbletop' version of the P-47 Thunderbolt. Interestingly, the term 'bubbletop' and 'razorback' are very much post war descriptions as the pilots of the day just called them P-47s or Thunderbolts. The Thunderbolt was one of the early US escort fighters and while well powered and heavily armed, they had a poor rate of climb and a rather short endurance. This latter situation was overcome by the addition of a centerline drop tank and in later versions, wing pylons were added where fuel tanks could also be carried (as well as bombs). Eventually, all P-47 equipped fighter groups except the 56th, switched over to the Mustang, which was the escort fighter the USAAF really wanted. P-47s were then used in ground attack units for the most part.

This book covers the P-47s that had the clear vision canopy with the major production models being the later P-47D, the uprated P-47M and the long range P-47N, which was very much a different plane in many respects to the earlier versions and perfect for use in the Pacific.

This new book in  MMP's Yellow series takes a look at the design and development of the 'bubbletop' P-47s from the initial work to the planes used late in the war. P-47 production did stop in late 1945 when it was determined that there would be no more development of the airframe. Within its 160 pages is a complete rundown on the aircraft and its different variants, complete with descriptions of the differences between them.  The history section covers the use of the aircraft both by the US and Allies with some information on its use post war with a surprising number of nations.

Of course, the P-47 is well represented in museums both in the US and around the world with several of them currently on the list of warbirds, providing exciting flying displays to those fortunate to view them. Thanks to this there is a full and complete walk around with most of the images in this section in full color. Personally I'd take some of the color info with a grain of salt as warbirds and museum planes are sometimes notorious for inaccuracies in this area. For instance, several of these planes have green primer, when period photos show clearly that the yellow primer was used by Republic. The close up and detail information also includes period images and pages from the maintenance manuals to give even greater insight into this fighter. There are also a goodly number of the color profiles we have all come to expect from MMP books.  As an added bonus, there are scale plans included in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scale, the latter two provided as huge foldouts that provided additional detail drawings. 

Overall, it is a most complete look at one of the world's more interesting fighters. A book that continues the excellence of MMP products and one that I can highly recommend to you.

March 2011

Review book courtesy of Mushroom Models Publications where you can order your copy. Australian readers can get theirs from Platypus Publications, and US readers from Casemate Publishing.

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