Bootstrap Aviation

Cees Broere · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2004 11:28 am

Hi all,

Does anyone know what happened to Bootstrap Aviation and the wreckage of two Corsairs that apparently were brought up from the Aussie coast during the mid nineties? I remember seing a photo of a front section of a Corsair as well as a main spar lying against a wall.

Cheers

Cees

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2906

These guys?
http://dwp.bigplanet.com/bootstrapaircraft/door/
A quick survey of the the site did not turn up any mention the Aussie Birds, but WWD4 notes that Bu 97330 (the Corsair featured here) will be rebuilt using parts of the Aussie birds...

Chuck Gardner · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:57 pm

Craig is still around and still has the projects. Dont be suprised if he frequents this site.

RMB · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2004 10:03 pm

Col. Rohr wrote:

Cees,

Most of the Corsair stuff that came from Aussie Land in a word is JUNK, why because Corsiar parts for some reason don't hold up good in warmer salt water. Plus they have alot of Magnessum build into them.

The main problem with alot of Corsair project including Craigs is the Main Spar. They are real expenssive to reproduce, now only if we could convince the USN to lets us go and swap out some good spars that they have in a few of their nirds for static ones then we could have at least four Corsiars back into the Air.

Like Chuck said Craig is still rooming around,I think the last time I spoke with him he was still doing stuff for Kermit.

There is almost no mag in the corsair structure.

RMB · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2004 11:05 pm

I saw one of the water recovered spars. The seller claimed it was
air worthy. It was funny and scary at the same time.

As for the trading spars idea. If you want to remove 4 navy museum
spars and replace them with bad civilian spars that 8 spar changes.
That much labor would be better spent building a new assembly.
Who even knows how air worthy the navy parts are. There just isnt
a easy answer to the corsair spar question. Either there will never
be any new ones or someone will step up bite the financial bullet.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11282

Col. Rohr wrote:

The guys down at Vought in Dallas have all the dies, press and tools to do it but at 2 million a pop I don't see it happening.

Rob, are you saying that the original fixtures and tooling still exist at Vought, or that they would build one from scratch for 2 mil?

corsairboss · **Posted:** Tue Jun 22, 2004 3:37 pm

The Vought Retirees have all the stuff to make a new Corsair. The last time the CAF Corsair received the new paint scheme they made some new parts, before she was painted and sent back.

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2906

It sure would be nice if all the folks needing spars for their restoration/recreation/rebuild could get together, ala the B-17 operators co-op, and and have a couple of dozen spars made...
Maybe they would have to add a Best Corsair Catagory at Oshkosh...

Michel Lemieux · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2004 8:39 am

Just out of curiosity................

I was told that the corsair that was not long ago at Rielly and sold recently had a brand new scrach build replicated spar.

Is that the case ?

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2004 8:47 am

Michel Lemieux wrote:

I was told that the corsair that was not long ago at Rielly and sold recently had a brand new scrach build replicated spar.

This was discussed on WIX almost a year ago. That project had a laminated/layered spar if I remember correctly. The unfortunate (from my point of view) part of that story is that the project was being terminated and what existed in the project would be reduced to parts to supply other projects.

It makes you wonder where that spar went. Hmmmm..... :?:

Mike

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2004 9:01 am

Guys... you'd be surprised at what survived to be airworthy-viable on those Gold Coast corsairs. The sheet aluminium is mostly trashed, but the forgings and steel parts survived very well in many cases. I have the armour plate and other parts from one of these aircraft, and they are in remarkable condition. The spars are definitely non-viable though. The detailed photographs of the one they've been trying to sell in California show there to be a great deal of serious pitting in the caps, and large holes in the plate, so they are useless... almost even for a static example.

By the way, the Collings foundations corsair was underwater for a couple of weeks, and it's spar was fine, but the magnesium forgings were toast! I saw these parts myself a few years back, and they were absolutely turned into swiss cheese... even the big drop tank supports inside the wing were heavily pitted! The earlier corsairs had very few magnesium bits though... just the wheel rims, instrument panel, and rocker covers as far as I know.

Cheers,
Richard

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11282

Col. Rohr wrote:

It would be great to get some new spars done but untill the price comes down there will be No new ones.

While I understand that the Vought guys have all of the Dies and tools I think they are little outrages in there prices.

Of course, once someone built some, the price would come down. It is always the first one that is the most expensive. Maybe their price is high, maybe it is low.

Does anyone have any contact info for "the Vought guys"? I may be doing a lot of traveleing in the near future to the Vought plant in Dallas, so I could inquire further and find out exactly where they are coming from.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11282

Col. Rohr wrote:

BdK,

I had a talk with mint sometime back and he seems to know all the Skinny on what the Vought guys have.

You might want todrop him a pm.

Cheers

Unfortunately Mr. Moore considers me to be a time waster for him...

Guest · **Posted:** Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:09 am

This Message removed for violation of forum policy. No personal attacks will be tolerated.

Alan Brooks · **Posted:** Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:18 pm

Back to the topic of the spar. The spar that Reilly built is still intact. However the current owner of this -4 and several others does not like his name mentioned in anything, although we already know who he is...... So, I have to be very careful about what I say... (he has good attorneys from what I understand)... The project -4 that Reilly was building for Silberman is to be a static airplane. My understanding is that he (owner) does not want the liability risk for that new spar. This airplane is providing many small parts for the rebuild of the old Pardue and Cavanaugh -4's. Now back to the new spar question. We have covered this before. Nelson Ezell, John Lane, and Bob Oddegard have all looked into building new spars. John's best estimate was about 1 million to get the first one done. I know of an east coast collector that is still seriously thinking about producing new spars. Reilly proved that it can be done. You have to have a complete intact spar from with which to work. The microfilm drawings that Nelson has, has many discrepancies vs what was actually built, drilled, etc...... Yes, they have a complete original spar or two from with which to work (read between the lines). Now the question is, does anyone want to pay that much for a new spar when you could flyaway in the -7 that was just sold through Mark Clark for the same money? Thoughts ? Alan

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