Warbird Information Exchange

My cousin took these photos while visiting the San Diego Air Museum today. Anyone have more information on this project? Was supposedly damaged during Katrina?

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

That's an F4U-7 that used to be at Battleship Park in Mobile.
After Katrina there was not enough money to fix it so it went
west. I wish them well with it.

I am no expert but I don't think that cardboard is an approved covering for flight control surfaces.

Fascinating shots... thanks very much for posting.... extraordinary how different the F4U-7 fuselage is from an F4U-1 even though the contours are very similar. Station 186 (where the seat mounts) is completely sealed.... I guess that was the only way to really eliminate the CO poisoning. There's a lot of strengthening in the rear fuselage too... ribs are much closer together... then again, this version had a more powerful engine, and carried much more ordanance.

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Thanks for the input. I know little of Corsairs. Would just like to know more about the story of this bird. Glad I could share what little I have of this.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Steve, this one flew with the French Aeronavale of course, and after being declared surplus it was procured by the US Naval Air Museum and shipped to Pensacola, FL in 1965. I believe it was 1977 before the plane finally went on display at the USS Alabama Memorial Park, painted as an AU-1 and mounted atop a short concrete pedestal near the gang plank that led up to the battleship. Looking at the photos now, I'm absoultely amazed its not completely corroded from 20+ years of exposure to the salty elements. During the late 1990's this plane along with a number of the others rarer types was relocated inside a beautiful new 'Aircraft Pavillion' building that was constructed on site. When Katrina hit in 2005, the storm surge completely swamped the Pavillion and basically sloshed all of the planes around inside, damaging most of them and thoroughly bathing them all in salt water. The Corsair was initially relocated to the restoration facility at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola for disassembly, then in early 2008 it was trucked to San Diego for restoration. Thanks for the pics!!

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Thanks for sharing these. Here's a photo of her I took back in December 1989 (complete with dummy in the cockpit).

-Derek