With this thread my "career" in that fantastic forum began. I am so sorry that all the informations, posts and pictures are lost due forum problems. I try to recover my posts and hope you enjoy again the story of 124541
One of the famous aircraft stored and maintained at the MeierMotors shop is the Chance Vought
Corsair F4U-5NL. The plane is registered as F-AZYS. The plane was restored by the French over several years, restored to series-07 shape and painted in the dress of the Aeronavale. In the winter 2009 the fighter was sold to Max Alpha Aviation /MeierMotors.
The plane saw action over Hyères "100 ans aeronavale" and of course at the "Flying Legends Duxford". After the airshowseason, it was planned to strip the plane to check the airframe, maintainance, reatauration and of course a new paintjob. I told the history here in the WIX-forum and some days later I got a mail from the forum-member Rob Mears and he told me really stunning news, sensational news ! He told me the real history of "our"
Corsair :
The
Corsair #124541 was buildt as a F4U-5NL, will say nightfighter / allweatherfighter. History began 31st December 1950 and in may 1951 the plane was assigned to VC3 (Navy Composite Squadron 3), tailcode NP.
22nd January 1952, was ferried with FASRON 11 (Fleet Air Service Squadron 11) to Japan and on 8th February 1952 assigned to MWSS1 (Air Marine Corps Aviation). On 20th February 1952 the plane was assigned to VMF-513(N) "Flying Nightmares" , 5th Airforce. The VMF-513(N) flew Tigercats and Corsairs for night attacks under flares over Korea. The flares were fired for ex. from C-47. Later in 1952 the
Corsair were replaced by F4D Skyknight.
VMF-513 had about 15
Corsair F4U-5NL in service and #124541 was one of them and saw combat action over Korea.
#124541 went back to the States (FASRON8 Alameda/Ca) at 10th December 1952. At this time the
Corsair flew about 122hours over Korea. 2nd November with MWSS1 back to Japan and was stored at FASRON11. 21st March 1953 back to FASRON8 in the US. 5th November 1953 the nightfighter was assigned to VC-3 based at Moffett again. She flew over there about 86 hours. After that, several depots and at 16th May 1956 the fighter was assigned to NAS (Naval Air Station) NART Birmingham. After 64 hours in the air, the plane was stored on 4th August 1956 at Litchfield Park and stricken from the list.
At this moment the plan was 86 month old and about 1039 flight-hours. The plane was listed as a socalled "surplus" and later sold to Argentinia.
Rob Mears sent me a copy of the History Card
"Our"
Corsair is a Flying Nightmare !!!!!!! ... and nobody knewed it. Thanks again Rob for this sensational information
here a historical picture of one of those Flying Nightmares
Assigned to the
Argentina Armada the plane was listed as No0433 and got the tactical number 2-A-202. The fighter was assigned to 2 Esquadrilla de Ataque since beginning of 1959. Later the tactical number was changed to 3-A-204. The plane was also based on the aircraft-carrier "Indepencia".
On 6th November 1964 the plane had a landing accident and was later stricken from the list (April 1966) and stored in the Marine Museum of El Tigre.
The museum-piece was sold 1991 to a French collector and ferried 1994 to Le Castellet South France. The plane was restored over there for several years as a F4U-7 of the Aeronavale. The fighter was registered as F-AZYS and got the serial 133704.
MeierMotors / Max Alpha Aviation bought that plane in the year 2009 and on the 2nd December 2009 the plane was ferried to Bremgarten by Ramon Josa, one of the most experienced
Corsair-pilots.
On the picture you can see me in front of that proud bird in December 2009
lets take a seat .... oh man that ship is really big !
March 2010 Achim Meier at the controls
The fighter was displayed 2010 at the airshow "100 ans Aeronavale" at Hyères and the "Flying Legends" airshow at Duxford.
_________________
Regards from Germany
Matthias Dorst
(webmaster MeierMotors GmbH/ EDTG)
http://www.meiermotors.com