F4U-5 Corsairs in action at VMF-513 Flying Nightmares

[Rob Mears]

Unfortunately, when the plane was restored by the Association Française d'Avions Historiques during the late-1990s it was stripped down to the bare metal.

[ChrisDNT]

"The French converted it to a F4U-7 to display a Suez-fighter, now the job is to build it back to a F4U-5NL .... "

WOW, it's great to hear that, that this Corsair will lose its hybrid status, to get back to its real identity.

Btw, the aircraft would look übergreat in its original Argentina colors !!!
(the big anchors would look amazing in meetings, much more interesting than another one already for long well-known US finish)

[Rob Mears]

Excellent! I love images of bare metal Corsairs.

I would refer you to Ezell Aviation (http://www.ezellaviation.com) in regard to the required parts and drawings. Nelson and his crew are good folks and they have repaired, restored, or maintained close to a dozen Corsairs that I can think of over the years.

I too am glad to see the Corsair being properly reconfigured back into its original shape. The whole F4U-7 hybrid thing always bugged me, and especially since they painted it as "BuNo.133704" which still exists in the United States! I always thought the previous owners should have simply restored it as an F4U-5N then traded it to the Tillamook Air Museum in exchange for their F4U-7 that they repainted as a US machine! Neither party seemed to have the kind of plane that they really wanted at the time.

[Rob Mears]

now the job is to build it back to a F4U-5NL .... new cowling, new oilcoolingsystem, other exhausts and so on .... btw. we (MeierMotors) need constructiondrwaing of the cowling and the oilsystem in the wing, also drawings of the metalsheet behind the exhausts and last but not least drawings of the "antiglare" above the exhauststacks...... big job, great effort but a really stunning project

Do you think there's any chance the previous owners still have the original -5NL parts that were removed from the plane during restoration? If they weren't included with the plane at the sale, it might be worth a look to find out where they ended up.

And I say keeping this thread intact is just fine IMO (I already have it bookmarked:) ). I'm just as equally fascinated by the 'big picture' at MeierMotors and having a single thread to keep track of all of the action there at once.

I hate that this tiny photo is the only one I have of number '41'. I'll try to search around and find what collection it belongs to and hope there is a larger example somewhere. There are plenty of other photos showing the black & red paint configuration in better detail, including the non-standard (small) national insignias.

[DaveM2]

Rob-check your email (SkyCharger) sent a few Corsair pics to ya

Dave

[ronl]

Great pictures! I am new to the forum and looking forward to spending a lot of time here.

Does anyone have any detailed drawings or pictures showing the 20mm cannon arrangement (including ammuntion boxes and feed mechanism) for the cannon armed Corsairs ( F4U-5 and later versions)? There doesn't seem to be much information out there pertaining to the cannon armed Corsairs.

Thanks.

Ron

[The Inspector]

Bicarbonate of soda media removal is much gentler-

[ronl]

Hi Matthias,

Outstanding pictures! Thank you very much for posting them. Do you possibly have any detailed pictures of the ammunition boxes that you could post? I believe the inboard boxes were slightly larger than the outboard boxes. Anything you might be able to post would be much appreciated. Thanks again.

Cheers,

Ron

[ronl]

Hi Matthias,

No problem. I was just hoping you might have some pictures handy in your collection. The boxes formed part of the wing (as your pictures clearly show), so if they are ever out on display at some point, please take a few pictures for me.

Thanks.

Ron