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Show Need Tip-Top Pilots For P-47, a Super Plane Aviation experts say the pilot who flies the U. S. army's new P-47 Thunderbolt Thun-derbolt into combat at 400 miles an hour must function instinctively and with split-second co-ordination. The Republic P-47 is the army s latest high altitude heavy fighter plane. It is reported to be the deadliest dead-liest weapon of its type ever developed. devel-oped. A pilot of the new plane is reported report-ed able to fly in excess of 400 miles per hour, perform at 40,000 feet altitude, alti-tude, dive at better than 700 miles an hour and operate over a ferrying range of 1,000 miles. War department officials describe the P-47 as carrying eight 50-caliber machine guns, firing more than 100 rounds of ammunition a second. Air force instructors and psychologists psycholo-gists declare the pilot of such a war plane must be alert, daring and possess pos-sess co-ordination-plus. Lieut. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, chief of U. S. army air forces, has asked the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to help select aviation avia-tion cadets. The overseas veterans' organization claims to have already enlisted nearly 20,000 cadet candidates candi-dates through special physical and mental examinations paralleling army entrance tests. Men passing the VFW examinations are recommended recom-mended to selective service and army cadet boards for enlistment or voluntary induction into air force training. |