@ Chino , CA
May 2018
The 2018 Planes of Fame airshow was the first chance I had to see ‘Dottie Mae’, the newest flyable P-47 to hit the airshow circuit. This aircraft crashed in 1945 into an Austrian lake during a morale flight demonstration over a POW camp, earning the honor of being the last USAAF aircraft lost in action in the European theater of operations. In 2005 ‘Dottie Mae’ was finally retrieved from the bottom of the lake and was transported to Idaho where she was restored using many of her original parts, culminating in a return to airworthiness in August of 2017. The P-47 was the largest single engine fighter of WWII. Dottie Mae is the only known Thunderbolt survivor from either the Eight AF or Ninth AF in the European Theatre of Operations, as well as being a combat veteran with at least 90 missions under its belt, making it truly historic. Now part of the Allied Fighters collection, this P-47 will be seen a lot more at West Coast airshows. Nikon D7100 w/18-200mm.
