The P-47's (Almost) Successor: Republic XP-72 Ultrabolt

In this video, we talk about the Republic XP-72 Ultrabolt, a late-World War 2 propeller-driven fighter designed to succeed the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. We talk about the successful career of the P-47 and the early push by Republic and the US military to build a successor to it. We talk briefly about such other attempts like the XP-69 and the so-called "Turbobolt," a jet-powered P-47 concept design. We also talk about the incredibly successful testing - in it being both comparable to the P-47 in terms of control while also being very fast, potentially on the cusp of being the fastest propeller-driven, piston engine plane of the era - of the XP-72 and why, despite that, it never advanced past the prototype stage and ended up fading from history.