p47 in 1946 sounds fishy to me.
Actually not fishy at all.
P-47 Postwar service
The USAF Strategic Air CommandStrategic Air CommandThe Strategic Air Command was both a major command in the United States Air Force and a "specified command" in the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
had P-47 Thunderbolts in service from 1946 through 1947.
The P-47 served with the Army Air Forces (United States Air ForceUnited States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
after 1947) until 1949, and with the Air National GuardAir National GuardThe Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...
until 1953, receiving the designation F-47 in 1948. P-47s also served as spotters for rescue aircraft such as the OA-10 CatalinaPBY CatalinaThe Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the US military and in the air forces and navies of many other nations...
and Boeing B-17HB-17 Flying FortressThe Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Corps , introduced in the 1930s. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps'...
.
The F-51 MustangP-51 MustangThe North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was a long-range single-seat World War II fighter aircraft. Designed, built and airborne in just 117 days, the Mustang first flew in RAF service as a fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft before conversion to a bomber escort, employed in raids over...
was used by the USAF during the Korean WarKorean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
, mainly in the close air support role. The F-47 was not deployed to Korea. Since the Mustang was more vulnerable to being shot down, (and many were lost due to anti-aircraft fire), some former F-47 pilots have suggested the more durable Thunderbolt should have been sent to Korea; however the F-51D was available in greater numbers in the USAF and ANG inventories.
The type was provided to many Latin American air forces some of which operated it into the 1960s. Small numbers of P-47s were also provided to China, IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
and YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
.
A total of 15,686 Thunderbolts of all types were built, making it one of the most heavily produced fighter aircraft in history (second only to the 16,766 P-51 Mustangs amongst U.S. fighters). A number of P-47s have survived to the present day, and a few are still flying.
