 | P-47D Thunderbolt | | Model:39204 | | The proportional model:1:72 | | Browse the number:914 |
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The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of
a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they
were the 332nd Fighter Group and the
477th Bombardment Group of the U.
S. Army Air Corps.
The Tuskegee Airmen initially were equipped
with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks fighter-bomber aircraft, briefly with Bell P-39
Airacobras (March 1944), later with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts (June- July 1944),
and finally the fighter group acquired the aircraft with which they became most
commonly associated, the North American P-51 Mustang (July 1944). When the
pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47's red, the
nickname "Red Tails" was coined. Bomber crews applied a more effusive
“Red-TaiI Angels” sobriquet.
