Bob Bean F4U Collection

[zorro7]

F4U Folks:

Found this shot on FB of one of Mr. Bob Bean F4Us ready to be flown S. of the border.c. 1960s.
Does anyone know Mr. Victor G. Archer for any other poss angles of this FAH F4U ??


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... =1&theater

[Speedy]

F4U Folks:

Found this shot on FB of one of Mr. Bob Bean F4Us ready to be flown S. of the border.c. 1960s.
Does anyone know Mr. Victor G. Archer for any other poss angles of this FAH F4U ??


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... =1&theater

Victor posts often on Facebook, as well as has a profile with contact on AAFO.com. He has scanned a lot of his father's old photos/slides from the 50's and 60's that are pretty cool.

[zorro7]

Speedy:

Tks for the info/data. Will contact him about this nice shot. It's a poss FAH 614/ F4U-4 Buno 96995, at Hawthorne, Calif c. 1960s.

Would love to see other angles of that particular area. Tks

[P51Mstg]

BTW.... I know Victor in passing... Those photos were taken by his FATHER back in the day..... He might have been around then, but like me, dad probably didn't let him shoot the camera. Now... Victor is a great aviation photographer, may well see him at Reno this year.

Mark H

[fahnach]

Indeed a very nice photo of this unidentified Honduran F4U-4. But what really puzzles me is the former Honduran P-38L on the port side of the Corsair.

[C VEICH]

Indeed a very nice photo of this unidentified Honduran F4U-4. But what really puzzles me is the former Honduran P-38L on the port side of the Corsair.

And I'd like to know more about the Black Widow carcass on the starboard side!

[P51Mstg]

I've seen other shots of the same plane at the same time and I believe it was taken in Southern CA somewhere not in Central America

I'll ask Victor...

Mark H

[bdk]

And I'd like to know more about the Black Widow carcass on the starboard side!

The Widow was at Blythe I think. It was a corroded hulk that was scrapped. Charles Nichols did get some of the control surfaces from it and has them in storage as I recall.

[Steve]

The P-38 could be #44-53095 N9005 when it was with Bob Bean

Steve

[zorro7]

F4U Folks/fahnach:

By process of elimination and the place given (Hawthorne, Calif) the F4U is prob FAH 614 as it was getting ready for the long ferry trip not to Honduras but out all places, Ilopango airport, El Salvador & then Honduras. Mr. Bob Bean attempted to negociate with FAS folks about getting F4U-4s also. The deal never materialized.

The aircraft to the left side of the nice looking F4U is also a prob Lockheed 10A X FAH 104 not a P-38. Mr. Bean also negotiated with FAH the sale of couple of P-38s c. 1960s.

p.s Other names that come up with this same picture are: Ed Maloney & Tom Piedimonte. If you know these gentlemen we would like to hear more details of Hawthorne area, including a poss picture of the man himself Mr. Bob Bean.

Tks

[zorro9]

...another of the famous Bob Bean F4U Collection poss Buno 81415, "K" # 7. Poss near Tucson, AZ c. Oct 71!

p.s the R/cowling writing says: "Gaston of Chihuahua, Mex Oct/1971" . Tks Gaston. Photo via AEC.

Last edited by zorro9 on Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Rob Mears]

I don't figure Bean would have been flying to Salvador on a sales venture with an F4U already wearing FAH markings though. My best guess would be that the photo was taken between early 1960 and late 1961, after Bean had already negotiated some initial trades with the FAH in exchange for the P63's, P38's, and the Lockheed 10.

[zorro9]

Rob/F4U Folks:

Good day!

Perhaps..perhaps! The political atmosphere was pretty stable in those days! Could it be Buno 97059 then?

[Rob Mears]

After that first Corsair was passed on to the FAH in late 1958, the next delivery was just over a year later when three more aircraft were delivered. Apparently there was a fourth plane from that delivery flight, a lone straggler (96995), that eventually made the journey about six weeks later. I'd be curious to find out if the F4U in the photo was the only one present at the field when the shot was taken. If so, it may have been this 'straggler' Corsair getting some required maintenance before catching up with the others. Bean would have traded away four Corsairs by that time, which would have easily justified the presence of the Lockheed in the photo.

It would be more than a year and a half later before Bean delivered the final flight of four F4U-4's, so honestly I figure the photo could have been taken at any point after 1958. I imagine the FAH would not have let Bean take possession of any FAH aircraft prior to some form of physical trade taking place, so I'm thinking the photo most definitely taken at least after that first "sample" Corsair (97388) passed into FAH hands.

[shuck]

This photo is of F4U-4 BuNo.81415 K-7 OLATHE at Blythe CA in 1972. Now preserved in Korea. HTH


[/quote]