Anything that gets BuNo.96885 out of storage and back into some semblance of its former self is fine by me. I'll be bold enough to assume that the museum is planning on displaying it
inside the ship rather than on top of the flight deck. The FG-1D aboard the USS Yortown museum seems to be faring pretty well under the circumstances, despite its obvious exposure to the saltwater environment.
I just can't get my head around the whole situation with the plane's owner. Over the years, Ms. Crown has remained vehemently opposed to parting with the plane. Nobody's money was good enough to acquire it...and now it's being willingly handed over to a government museum? I certainly have nothing but praise for the crew at the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, but a project like the old "Kissimmee Corsair" would be a far better candidate for this kind of
aesthetic display duty (i.e. a plane with limited heritage that will never fly due to core engineering faults, etc). Something already in Navy or Marine inventory would have been even better yet!
Regardless, it'll be nice to see this "lost" Corsair being aired out, back on its gear and in one piece again.
I can only hope that one day the owner and her peers will decide to reclaim the plane and see to its proper and complete restoration - before it becomes just another picked over shell on permanent static display.
_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.comhttp://www.robmears.com
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Is factory support offered for that beauty in the event you bend a flap or something? I could definitely see designing my next house to fit around that. 
