Warbird Information Exchange

My father recently passed away and I spent some time going thru his military papers. He was a fighter pilot in WWII in the Phillipines in the VMF-115. Thru a bit of research I found out one of the planes he flew was the Corsair/BuNo. 88303. The plane at one time was owned by a Ed Shipley then sold to the Flying Heritage Foundation. The plane at one time was being restored by Ezell Aviation but they never completed the project. The website at the Flying Heritage Foundation lists the plane under restoration . But I think it has been listed that way for some time. I think the last time Ezell worked on it was in 2000 or 2001. If anyone can tell me a bit about this plane it would be appreciated. There are some great pictures of the plane on the airliners.net. Thanks,John

Welcome John. We like Corsair types around here.
Regards
Robbie Stuart

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

The Corsair is no longer with Nelson, and has been moved to another location where it is being restored back to airworthy statis.

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FLY SAFE--FLY FAST
F4U Corsair Historian
Mint Moore III

Thanks for the picture. By searching the internet I came across a posting by Rob Mears that said he had a flight log of the plane we are talking about and my Dad's name was listed. I sent him an email with a picture of my Dad in front of a plane. Not sure if it is this particular plane but it is a Corsair.

So, which one then, is the Corsair being restored at Ezell's?

I have quite a few pictures of it, but at the request of the guys at Breckenridge, I cannot publish them.

This Corsair is undergoing extensive -and high quality, of course- restoration work.

Saludos,


Tulio

Tulio, most of it is Ex-Howard's #68....


Lynn

Thank you, Lynn.

I saw the crash photos, in the album from the guy who is doing the restoration work at Ezell's less than two months ago.

Saludos!


Tulio

The Corsair in the main shop is Howard's x F4U-4. It has come a long way. Leading edge skins should be on soon. Cockpit to be completed and FWF. Quite a bit of the hydraulics are already installed and the wings can be raised and lowered. Cavanuagh's x-4 will be next. My understanding is that this will be completely stock. The Paul Allen FG-1D was well advanced when work was stopped and the airplane loaded up and moved to Rialto. The cockpit was 80-85% complete and still demated from the fuselage. This was an absolutely, beautifully done airplane to this point. If Bill or Alan re-strip that cockpit, .... I will reserve my words for later. I believe that most of the airframe had been stripped, primed, and ready for final fitting, except for FWF. Somewhere I have some pics and or video. The prior director of The Flying Heritage Collection was more than a bit difficult to deal with. The vibes I picked up, was that there was a huge sigh of relief when the Corsair and Hellcat (yes, it was stored in one of Howard's hangers) both left. Alan

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Just call me Al.

(sorry to step from the original post)

Speaking of #97280 & #97302, I look forward to seeing them once again. It's a bummer we can't see pics of their current status

You can click the link below and see video I took of 280's last start up & taxi out at Osh. Out of respect for those involved, I didn't see a need to include the subsequent event. (once page opens, just click the my docs folder, then the corsair link)

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/jaymotox@sbcglobal.net

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Life's a Pitts