Warbird Information Exchange

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

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

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
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Semper Fortis

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

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

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-Dante Cosentino

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

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.

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"Anyway, the throat feels a bit rough...the legs have gone...but I'm still able to chant, so let's get going."

Joe Strummer, 1999

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.

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

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!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

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

Who owns ownership to it?

I CALL DIBS ON IT!

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Mother NAVY of course.

Then NHC.


Shay
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Semper Fortis

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

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Don't touch my junk!!

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


Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

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
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Semper Fortis

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

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

B