First appearance of the term "razorback" for P-47s

[daveculp]

I read an recent interview with a pilot of P-47's in the 1940's and he said the term "razorback" was not in use while he was flying them.  This got me curious about when the term was coined, at least when used to describe the P-47.  As far as I can tell the first written use of "razorback" to describe a P-47 was from the 1965 Hawk P-47D kit (number 500-100).  Interestingly this was a re-boxing of the 1964 kit (number 212-200) which did NOT use the terms "razorback" or "bubble canopy".  The 1964 box showed side-view drawings of both versions and the text said, "Build either version".

 

You may rightly wonder why anyone would care when the term was coined.  Glad you asked!  I do a lot of genealogy work and have seen names and other "facts" about people made up decades after their decease.  Sometimes it's just bad genealogy, and sometimes it's intentional re-rewriting of history.  A very common example of this is applying "Sr." and "Jr." to men who never used those suffixes during their lifetimes, but it's convenient for genealogists so it gets used after the fact.  Innocuous?  Maybe.  Ahistorical? Definitely.

 

 

-- Dave

[MikeMaben]

 

 

I built this one a couple of times. It's in their 1961 catalog..

 

 

 

[daveculp]

OK, it looks like Scalemates database is 3 years off on the release date for this one.  I like the price!

[daveculp]

Good links, however the text is modern.  I still haven't seen evidence for the use of these terms before the 1960's.

 

-- Dave

[MikeMaben]

13 hours ago, daveculp said:

OK, it looks like Scalemates database is 3 years off on the release date for this one.  I like the price!

I've found Scalemates to be 'off' in several instances. A great place to find info on old kits is directly from

the old catalogs.   https://boxartden.com/collections/gallery/index.php/Vintage-Model-Kit-Catalogs-1950-1999

 

From an interesting site to poke around in  https://www.boxartden.com/