What is this American aircraft? (found in North Korea)

Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:12 pm

I won't even venture a guess. But I figured someone here would know. I assume it was a Korean War veteran. FYI, I'm not convinced that the airframe was powered by the radial engine placed in front of it.

For some context, I found the picture in this thread. It is a VERY interesting read about the DPRK.

Cheers,
Danny

Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:13 pm

At first sight, it looks like a Skyraider.

Saludos,

Tulio

Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:14 pm

yup - an Able Dog

Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:36 pm

Yes, F-86 tail section in the background. Also F9F Panther and F4U-4 Corsair in that museum. Fairly substantial wrecks...

Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:28 pm

Definitely an AD Skyraider in a sullied state for such a magnificent bird!

Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:58 pm

Actually guys that would be the tail of an A-26. If you look carefully you can see the red paint for the BC # just behind the star and bar. You can also see the square cut outs for the top glass piece in the gunners compartment. The serial number should be on the vertical fin somewhere.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:12 am

Ryan - I am often wrong but never uncertain. .. I missed two key elements not including the square cut out. I missed the dihedral on the stabilizer - the AD was straight but A/B-26 had the dihedral.

Second, I couldn't see the 'notch' in the wing where the engine mount/nacelle structure would be.. until now.

Both have a very similar rudder, both have a curved rudder 'strake' but the first impression for me was the 'no nacelle' - shoulda looked a little harder

Regards,

Bill

Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:19 am

Ryan Harris wrote:Actually guys that would be the tail of an A-26.

...mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa......

:oops:

Martin

Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:37 am

Here's a few more (from Airliners.net)

Real shame

Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:19 am

It looks like there are two different corsairs there! I wonder if either is an AU-1?

Cheers. Richard

Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:34 am

I may be wrong on this, but could it be a Grumman AF-2 Guardian? The profile doesn't look like a skyraider to me.

Randy

Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:49 am

RMAllnutt wrote:It looks like there are two different corsairs there! I wonder if either is an AU-1?

Cheers. Richard

It don't think they are...If you look behind the cockpit, neither of those aircraft appear to have the fairing for the raised canopy that was present on the -5/AU-1/-7 Corsair. I would guess they are both F4U-4/4B's.

Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:52 am

Randune wrote:I may be wrong on this, but could it be a Grumman AF-2 Guardian? The profile doesn't look like a skyraider to me.

Randy

I agree, the second photo is hard to judge, but if you look at the first photo, intake, exhaust fairings, hardpoints, and landing gear locations are a tip off. I think it is indeed a Skyraider.

Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:53 am

What are you guys looking at ?

The original picture of the rear fuselage and empenage is definitely an A-26. Not sure about the wing.

The other pictures posted are only coming out as the Airliners.net logo. How do you open those ?

Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:20 pm

RickH wrote:What are you guys looking at ?

The original picture of the rear fuselage and empenage is definitely an A-26. Not sure about the wing.

The other pictures posted are only coming out as the Airliners.net logo. How do you open those ?

They are showing automatically for me, some sort of settings problem on your PC ? a pop-up stopper ?