F2G Super Corsair Assembly Line

Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:11 pm

As promised.... more pictures!

Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:51 pm

Great photos!

Tue Jan 16, 2007 5:00 pm

PHANTOM,

Check your PM's, trying to get in touch with you.

Regards,
Mike

Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:14 pm

Phantom, do you have that 2nd group of photos as well?

Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:38 pm

The interesting thing to me in all of these photos, is that there isn't a single airframe there with the tail extension. I know that some of the racers didn't have the extension, and I've heard those called XF2Gs. Is that what we are seeing here?

Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:42 pm

Rob Mears wrote:Phantom, do you have that 2nd group of photos as well?

What do you mean?

As for the tail extension.... here is a blue print.... it does not seem to have the extra control surface that you may be thinking about. Although I have a series of pictures of them testing many different tails setups. And yes, the back of these pictures say "F2G assembly line". Any of the photos of XF2Gs said "XF2G".

Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:56 pm

I think these photos are fascinating. Every single F2G photo you have should be on here. I can imagine that Rob Mears is thoroughly eating them up. The F2G is an awesome machine but, for me at least, there is quite a bit of mystery. For example, I was under the impression that all production airframes had the extension to the rudder. From these photos, it appears that just might not be the case. In other books, all the airframes that did not have the rudder extension were labelled as XF2Gs. Here they are clearly marked F2G-1. Thank you for posting them. Too bad they didn't all survive.

Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:06 am

Maybe the extensions were added later? Sometimes it isn't convenient to disrupt production with modifications. They may have run through another line after completion where the modifications determined to be required during testing were incorporated. As the XF2Gs were being tested they were probably building the first production units.

Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:10 am

Sorry, I should do a better job of proof reading my posts

Do you have the dates for that 2nd group of photos as well?

I think BDK is right in regard to the modified tails. Upgrades and modifications like this were usually carried out after initial production so as not to inhibit the flow of things. The tail modification made its test runs on XF2G-1 BuNo.14692, which had been accepted on September 29, 1944, just three months or so before many of these photos were taken. I would guess that, by the time the decision was made to incorporate the new rudder design into the final design, the production line was already up and running.

Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:37 pm

Rob Mears wrote:Sorry, I should do a better job of proof reading my posts

Do you have the dates for that 2nd group of photos as well?

OK... that makes a bit more sense. It was late when I read that and I thought I couldn't read it right!

Here are the dates...

July 22, 1944
December 15, 1944
December 15, 1944
December 15, 1944
December 26, 1944
December 26, 1944
January 12, 1945
January 23, 1945
January 29, 1945
February 19, 1945
March 28, 1945

Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:37 pm

On page 2, 4th picture down, you can see Corsair #2610 in the back ground. How does this correlate with the BuNo#'s?

Here's another pic from the F2G program.

Regards,
Mike

Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:26 pm

Number '2610' would most probably be the factory serial number for that particular FG-1D in the background. If so, that should make it BuNo. 87796. That plane would have been accepted by the US Navy sometime around mid-February 1945, which may have been possible taking into consideration the completeness of the plane in the photo, the lag time with test flights, then actual delivery. BuNo.87853 was delivered on 2/25/1945, and the photo was taken on 12/15/1944. Goodyear was averaging about 140 planes per month around that time, so if you do the math it puts BuNo.87796 right around in there somewhere. That's my best guess anyway.

Also, if the single digit numbers on those planes denote their place along the F2G-1 production line, then the center section marked '5' in that same photo would be Bob Odegaard's BuNo.88458. Kinda cool.

Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:51 pm

I have a couple of original pics from Goodyear and I believe the dates on the back of the pics may show when they were either developed or catalogued, not necessarily taken.
My F2G print is dated Feb 46. Wasn't the program over by then?

The pic below shows FG-1 #209, it's written on the fuel bulkhead and you can see 209 written in marker on the side of fuselage with the paper taped over it. There is also 9/29 in marker where the shadow of the mans head is on the fuselage.
The back of the pic is marked A 43100902. I was told this means 1943 Oct. 9. Not sure what the 02 stands for.

Regards,
Mike

Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:07 am

Rob Mears wrote:Also, if the single digit numbers on those planes denote their place along the F2G-1 production line, then the center section marked '5' in that same photo would be Bob Odegaard's BuNo.88458. Kinda cool.

I'm pretty sure that they do and I had that same thought about Odegaard's plane.

mike furline wrote:The back of the pic is marked A 43100902. I was told this means 1943 Oct. 9. Not sure what the 02 stands for.

It means that it was the second photo taken in the set.

Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:20 am

My F2G print is dated Feb 46. Wasn't the program over by then?

The last three F2G's were delivered during February of 1946, so your pic most likely shows one of those planes.

The pic below shows FG-1 #209, it's written on the fuel bulkhead. There is also 9/29 in marker where the shadow of the mans head is on the fuselage.

The FG-1 in the photo should be FG-1 BuNo.13200 if I have my numbers right. A very rare shot IMO!