Warbird Information Exchange

Scott, feel free to grab any of these...

F4U- I'm curious as to the source of the airframe (Bu. No.?). The wings came from a civilian wreck from the looks of them.

F6U-1 Pirate (the sole survivor)

Anyone know the Bu. No.?



F7U-3 Cutlass 128451 (formerly Cresson, TX- PATE MUSEUM)




F8 Crusader (looking for a museum home I'm told)

Marked as YF-8C 140448 (formerly Cresson, TX- PATE MUSEUM)

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/re ... 40448.html

That is the SONORA PASS -4. Spent alot of time in FLA the last few years.

The F6U was the former New England Air Museum Airframe. It was wingless and was last flown by Test Pilot Boone Guyton. Lots of bondo on those restorations, strictly cosmetic, but it's nice to see the F4U taking shape. Too bad they didn't have a dash-5!
Jerry

Do tell! Never heard of it. Who did the fuselage work? That part of the restoration looks airworthy.

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/corsairr ... 97330.html ?????

This -4 is the one formerly owned by John Silberman that was restored at Tom Reilly's. It has the new-fab spar in it, the spar caps of which were made up of several layers of sheet aluminum, rather than single sheets. The outer wing panels came from the former Cavanaugh -4 which was wrecked at Oshkosh a few years back. The project was donated to the Vought retirees by the guy who bought up the former Howard Pardue -4 (which he wrecked), and the Cavanaugh -4 wreck. The former Howard Pardue -4 is currently being restored, and looked to be nearly structurally complete when I saw her a few weeks ago. I am not sure whether the Cavanaugh -4 remains were used to complete her, or whether they will themselves be resurrected in time. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Richard

BDK,

Very interesting and thanks for the photo of the F7U. That confirms at least one or two questions about F7U survivors. This plane was stored recently at the Fred Weisbrod Aviation Museum in CO...was it at Pate before that? Any idea where it is going post restoration?

Jim

I believe that the Vought Old Timers are trying to establish a museum of Vought products on site. I spoke to one of the members at their booth for the Corsairs over Connecticut event. I think it's a great idea, and wish we could see more of this sort of company pride.

Cheers, Richard

Just curious....



With the price of an airworthy Corsair these days. Why use such an advance airworthy restoration airframe ????? Was there any defect in it ?

The Vought Heritage Group had been looking for a Corsair for many years. When they discovered this one, they were able to cut a deal. The work on the fueselage looks great, but I've heard that the spar repairs are very questionable. As always, money talks, but so does being in the right place at the right time.
Jerry

The retirees are wanting to display some of these aircraft at Love field I'm told, but don't really have the space they need there. They really want to keep the F4U and the V-173 to put on display there, but were looking for a new home for the Crusader.

They can't establish a museum on site because the site is not accessible to the public. The retirees also know they are living on borrowed time for a number of reasons, one of which is downsizing and cost cutting at Vought, another is that most of the folks interested in those older airplanes are old heritage Chance Vought retirees who don't figure to have many years left. They don't get much help from the younger employees at the plant (their wives must not be tired of having them under foot yet). One of the guys I spoke with (Ray) was an 82 year old P-47 pilot ETO vet.

A nice bunch, they keep going on moxie (MoxieTM?) not adequate funding.

BDK, Great Pics...... Man you make one little mistake, maybe two, er.. well who's counting....... and I've blown it for life...... Glad that you are in my neck of the country for a visit.... hope you were able to try out some Tex-Mex cooking or some BBQ. Also nearby in Lancaster is the DFW Wing of the CAF. About six CAF aircraft in the hanger plus a great deal of Russian hardware (both jets and helos) on the field...... Cavanaughs' Museum is great....... Doug obviously enjoys his work and it shows..... It also helps a great deal when you have an owner who is not afraid to spend the money necessary to "Keep'em Flying!" I see no round, 18 cylinder hunk of metal hanging from the Corsair...... is the engine still in OK, or was it off to the side, awaiting installation..... Also, what kind of update did Doug give you on the P-47N. I can't wait to see it back at the museum to get all of the internal stuff re-installed..... Thanks.... Alfred, no ... Aldo.... no, thats not right either...... Alan

There's enough stuff that's 'out of spec' on that Corsair project that the previous owner's engineer, as well as the specialists at Breckenridge declared it unfit for an airworthy restoration. The new metal work looks great from a distance, but the fact that most of the plane was essentially fabricated from scratch led to a great many shortcuts being taken when fabricating the main components (namely the fuselage). As such, the previous owner had earmarked it as a source for spare parts for his other two projects prior to the Vought crew taking possession of it.

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

3 years and still waiting for the engine...

Sheet metal is nearly complete and it is almost ready to go on the gear at an offsite location. Might be back in Dallas in a month or so.