F4U 'netted'

[Swiss Mustangs]

found over at Hyperscale Forum


At the beginning of August the wreckage of an F4U Corsair was caught in the net of a Fishingboat off Porto Palo near Siracusa,Sicily and has now been brought to Sigonella Naval Air Station.

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=49326</a
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=49324</a
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=49325</a

F4U-5 ???

Martin

[Shay]

Good Find,

Will be interesting to find out the identity of this Corsiar and it's last pilot.

I would assume that this is a postwar ditching and would also so assume that the Med is littered with lots of NAVY aircraft.

Shay
_____________
Semper Fortis

[Django]

Very cool. Would make a neat underwater museum display for someone. Or is it rebuildable?

[DanteC]

I would guess -5 also. The position of the exhaust looks correct for that variant only. Also, the 2nd photo says .50 cal ammo was being removed. That would be incorrect for this aircraft, but if you look at the 3rd photo, I think you can see the 20 mm cannon stubs. They have the candy cane striped tape hanging off them.

Is it just me, or can you see a portion of a US national insignia in the 1st photo

[cg51]

I see it to, white with a bit of red from the star

[fotobass]

I would guess -5 also. The position of the exhaust looks correct for that variant only. Also, the 2nd photo says .50 cal ammo was being removed. That would be incorrect for this aircraft, but if you look at the 3rd photo, I think you can see the 20 mm cannon stubs. They have the candy cane striped tape hanging off them.

Is it just me, or can you see a portion of a US national insignia in the 1st photo

Agreed in both cases. I hadn't seen it before, but there's a link to the upper right of the image that says 'download hi-res'. Click that, and you can get much closer in. You can see some national insignia in both 1st and 3rd images.

[RMAllnutt]

It's definitely post war, you can see the red bar in the national insignia. It's also got cannon's not .50 cals as the reported said, and a metalized wing. It's a -5, judging by the exhaust position.

Cheers,
Richard

PS. I hope that they save it, but I am pretty sure they'll just scrap it, given its condition, and that they've done nothing to treat it.

[tom d. friedman]

exactly......... i was gonna say........ wtf??? i thought for a second is ww 2 aviation history being rewritten?? as a fisherman, that's 1 great catch!!!

[John Ceglarek]

I agree also. As others have said, you can definitely see red in the Natl. Insignia, and the canon stubs are clearly evident.

[Warbird Kid]

Who owns ownership to it?

I CALL DIBS ON IT!

[Shay]

Who owns ownership to it?

Mother NAVY of course.

Then NHC.


Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[Jack Cook]

They'll probably throw it back to preserve it for future generations

[RyanShort1]

Hmmm... Wonder if we could "accidentally catch" a few other planes...


Ryan

[Shay]

Sure.

Just go Trawling off the Florida's coast. You'll pull up all sorts of stuff.

I wonder how that would go over with the NHC. Once you snag something with your nets, you're kind of committed to pulling it up or lose you nets. And technically you could claim you're just fishing.


Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[B17news]

I can't believe the lack of acronyms in those articles.

Maybe that boat should go back for the rest of it.

B