P-47 with air conditioning?

Jenisch said:

I have already read in some sites that show up in Google when searching about the P-47 that the plane had air conditioning as "standard". I instantly became curious and made a search for manuals of the Thunderbolt in the web in order to understand how the system worked. But for my surprise, even after finding manuals from the B/C, late D series and even the N, I didn't find any mention about air conditioning, just air cabin air and cabin heat, as one would expect from an airplane of the era. So the question is: did the P-47 had this feature or not?

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swampyankee said:

I suspect that there may have been a shift in meaning of the term "air conditioning," but it's more likely that it's an instance of somebody on the Internet mistaking feelings for data.

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MIflyer said:

The first US fighter to have air conditioning was the P-80. Bleed air from the engine was run through a heat exchanger and then an air cycle machine, also called a cooling turbine, where the temperature fell, after which it was ducted into the cockpit to provide cooling. Uncooled bleed air was used to add heat to keep it from getting too cold. I believe that early system lacked a water separator, leading to snowballs being hurled into the cockpit under some circumstances..

The P-47 could have only have had outside air and air heated by the engine introduced into the cockpit. It would have been theoretically possible to tap off some of the turbo pressurized air and add a cabin outflow valve to pressurize the cockpit, but I do not think that was ever done, except possibly experimentally.

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MIflyer said:

The first US fighter to have air conditioning was the P-80. Bleed air from the engine was run through a heat exchanger and then an air cycle machine, also called a cooling turbine, where the temperature fell, after which it was ducted into the cockpit to provide cooling. Uncooled bleed air was used to add heat to keep it from getting too cold. I believe that early system lacked a water separator, leading to snowballs being hurled into the cockpit under some circumstances..

The P-47 could have only have had outside air and air heated by the engine introduced into the cockpit. It would have been theoretically possible to tap off some of the turbo pressurized air and add a cabin outflow valve to pressurize the cockpit, but I do not think that was ever done, except possibly experimentally.

Click to expand...