DTAM P-47D Thunderbolt "Bonnie" Unveiled

[JohnTerrell]

The Dakota Territory Air Museum just shared this photo of their Pacific Theatre combat-vet P-47D-23-RA 42-27609, now with the paint scheme completed, depicting Maj. Bill Dunham's P-47D-23-RA 42-27884 Bonnie of the 460th Fighter Squadron, 348th Fighter Group (a unit that 42-27609 may have also been assigned). The paint work, researched and planned out in detail by AirCorps Aviation, was carried out by Custom Aircraft Refinishing in Cassleton, North Dakota. The aircraft is currently in Minot today, for the DTAM's Festival of Flight event but, according to the museum, it will be leaving again shortly and won't be back for a couple months (presumably, after Thunder Over Michigan). I assume that it will be heading back to AirCorps Aviation where it will gain the addition of the wing hard points before its appearances at AirExpo and Oshkosh next month.

[Jesse C.]

Wow! Gorgeous, just simply gorgeous!

I hope they send a pic to the folks in New Guinea to show them how it turned out.

[AG pilot]

It is gorgeous, but I kinda liked it unpainted.

[Bradburger]

First class paint job - it looks stunning!

Cheers

Paul

[Pat Carry]

Very Nice!

[DH82EH]

STUNNING!
Well done to all involved.

[Sopwith]

That is really eye catching. What a beauty.

[kalamazookid]

Spectacular! Hard to imagine a better choice for a paint scheme.

[Lynn Allen]

Well done to all who worked to get her back in the air. A throw down hand for best warbird at Oshkosh...

[marine air]

This is a really special airplane. I think it's only the third razorback to be restored to flying and the other two were forty years ago. It's a combat veteran and restored in markings appropriate to where it served. The Thunderbolt has an excellent safety record in civilian hands and maybe this one will fly frequently. It will be a crowd pleaser and is especially authentic. Last, even though it's a one seater, it's capable of being converted to a second seat like the other two. This slightly increases our chance of riding in a Thunderbolt someday.

[quemerford]

I really hope they let it weather. To me it looks waaaaaayyyyy too shiny and I really don't like it. I know it's their train set, but warbirds always look better looking like they did.

[JohnTerrell]

This is a really special airplane. I think it's only the third razorback to be restored to flying and the other two were forty years ago. It's a combat veteran and restored in markings appropriate to where it served. The Thunderbolt has an excellent safety record in civilian hands and maybe this one will fly frequently. It will be a crowd pleaser and is especially authentic. Last, even though it's a one seater, it's capable of being converted to a second seat like the other two. This slightly increases our chance of riding in a Thunderbolt someday.

Right now, only Planes of Fame's P-47 has a second seat. The cockpit of that P-47G was restored to very stock condition by Tom Camp, five years ago, and now has a faux armor plate with removable bulkhead cover so that it looks fully stock when being flown without a passenger, and can be quickly transitioned to allow for a passenger flight.

Charles Somer's P-47G "Snafu", which did have a second seat when restored as "Little Demon" by Ray Stutsman, had the seat removed/returned to stock when restored by The Fighter Collection. That restoration was completed in 2012.

The Dakota Territory Air Museum's P-47D is fully stock in every detail throughout, and even includes an extra fuel tank in the fuselage that was added to it and other razorback P-47s in the Pacific (it would be absolute sacrilege to change anything about it).

It may look overly shiny to some, but there is no polish, it's just the way new aluminum looks with mil finish (same per original factory-new in 1944). The more the metal panels have to be formed into shape, the more blemishes/duller the metal becomes, which is noted around areas such as fillets, fairings, cowl, etc. I don't think they'll let the metal oxidize too much on an aircraft worth $7-$8 million (rough guess), much less use aviation fuel to clean it (as was commonly done during the war).

Last edited by JohnTerrell on Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:39 am, edited 2 times in total.

[quemerford]

...there is no polish, it's just the way new aluminum looks with mil finish (same per original factory-new in 1944).

Except that by the time an aircraft made it to its assigned Group and received its unit markings, it didn't look so shiny. And by the time it received nose art and several kills, even less than that.

It's a fine job, but the color scheme doesn't match the shine.

[Duggy009]

At nine kills,although the nose art looks slightly different?

[JohnTerrell]

A Jack Cook photo, showing the markings at the time in which the paint scheme depicts:



And another photo which has made the rounds quite a bit, from the same time period for which the restoration paint scheme was made to match.