Subdeacon Joe Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/idaho-man-restores-wwii-corsair-warplanes-1.277462 JEROME, Idaho — Fewer than 40 of the 12,571 Corsair warplanes churned out in the U.S. during World War II and the Korean War are airworthy today. One sits in a hangar at Jerome County Airport, its nose up against a roll-up metal door, waiting for its chance to fly again. This Corsair landed on the runway outside more than a decade ago. Built in 1945, the plane made it to Pearl Harbor just before fighting ended in the Pacific. It missed the Korean War, escaped the boneyards in Arizona and bounced around air museums in California, Canada and Washington before its current owner brought it to Jerome. Soon, Airpower Unlimited owner John Lane plans to fly it himself back to a flight museum in Olympia, Wash. Most warbirds brought in to Lane's plane restoration business don't take as long as the Corsair has. His team works on two to four projects all the time, with planes rotating out of the hangar as they're completed. But restoration can't be rushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Very cool! The Corsair was always one of my favorite plans. Might have something to do with having grown up on a heavy dose of "Baa Baa Black Sheep". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Aurelius L'Ollonois Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 +1000 on "Baa Baa Black Sheep." The cutting of actual aerial combat footage into the show, with those 6 Browning .50 Cals blazing was awesome!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Very cool! The Corsair was always one of my favorite plans. Might have something to do with having grown up on a heavy dose of "Baa Baa Black Sheep". +1000 on "Baa Baa Black Sheep." The cutting of actual aerial combat footage into the show, with those 6 Browning .50 Cals blazing was awesome!!! I certainly have to agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Dave Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Very cool! The Corsair was always one of my favorite plans. Might have something to do with having grown up on a heavy dose of "Baa Baa Black Sheep". me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branchwater Jack SASS #88854 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Never was a huge fan of the Corsair, but I sure appreciate the work they are putting in to save these old birds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Gotta love a plane the enemy calls Whistling Death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prof. Fuller Bullspit Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 I had the pleasure to get up close to one this past summer and see it fly. What a machine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 The way the Air Force is planning to junk the A-10's, they might need the old F4U's for close air support! Hope we can stay out of a ground war until the F-35's are operational, or something else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 The way the Air Force is planning to junk the A-10's, they might need the old F4U's for close air support! Hope we can stay out of a ground war until the F-35's are operational, or something else! I'm hoping saner heads prevail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Mushman Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Ol "Hose Nose" is my favorite WWII fighter that I wish I could have flown. Had an opportuntiy in 1971 to buy a decent one for $7K. Even with a partner (two of us almost went in on it), we could not afford the fuel and storge requirements. Ensign salary and WESTPAC deployments upcoming. One of several missed opportunities in my life. I still ove seeing the Corsairs. PS. The F-35 is ANYTHING BUT a close air support aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hoss Carpenter, SASS Life 7843 Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 The Corsair was a great Navy fighter ( so was the Hellcat); I thought it was somewhat ugly though. Utah Bob, you got to love the P-38 which the Germans called "The Forked Tail Devil". And Major Dick Bong shot down 40 Japs with it in the pacific. My all time favorite is the P-51D; if you have ever heard the 16 Cylinder Rolls Royce Merlin wail, it will chill you to the bone! Hoss C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 The way the Air Force is planning to junk the A-10's, they might need the old F4U's for close air support! Hope we can stay out of a ground war until the F-35's are operational, or something else! The AirForce brass doesn't like the A-10 because it isn't the most expensive toy in the toybox. Moreover keeping it alive would take money from supporting that most expensive toy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 The Corsair was a great Navy fighter ( so was the Hellcat); I thought it was somewhat ugly though. Utah Bob, you got to love the P-38 which the Germans called "The Forked Tail Devil". And Major Dick Bong shot down 40 Japs with it in the pacific. My all time favorite is the P-51D; if you have ever heard the 16 Cylinder Rolls Royce Merlin wail, it will chill you to the bone! Hoss C. Airkills with US pilots in US Planes P-51 5954 Hellcat F6F 5168 F4U 2140 P-38 3785 Of course the engine in the P-51D was most likely the Packard V-1650-7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 Close air support? The Jug. "Although the North American P-51 Mustang replaced the P-47 in the long-range escort role in Europe, the Thunderbolt still ended the war with 3,752 air-to-air kills claimed in over 746,000 sorties of all types, at the cost of 3,499 P-47s to all causes in combat." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Mushman Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Concur on the Jug for CAS (Close Air Support - long before it was Cowboy Action Shoting )!!!! The AF has had a very intense, internal battle regarding it's role (RESPONSIBILITY, IMO) for CAS to the ground troops, ever esince it's very inception as a separate (from the Army) service. The history of the internal conflict makes for fascinating reading, including careers ended. This is one reason the Army has more aircraft than the AF and Navy, combined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 8 .50's make a very large impression. The Jug was really a strong aircraft, could take a lot of abuse before it would fail. The Warthog is kind of a throwback. Main thinking behind eliminating it is probably it's role being filled by the Apache,freeing the AF to stay up high with the more expensive stuff. I hate to see the Warthog go though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 8 .50's make a very large impression. The Jug was really a strong aircraft, could take a lot of abuse before it would fail. The Warthog is kind of a throwback. Main thinking behind eliminating it is probably it's role being filled by the Apache,freeing the AF to stay up high with the more expensive stuff. I hate to see the Warthog go though There is a reason the Warthog is the Thunderbolt II. Rotary winged aircraft have their place, but are more delicate than the fixed wing sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 It helps that the P-47 had a big huge radial engine. They tend to outlast inline engines in ground support roles. The other ground attack aircraft is the F4U of this thread. Most were flown by Marines and for most of the time were land based. Allegedly this was due to lack of visibility while landing. It also had a good sized radial engine. Subdeacon Joe, where did you get the aerial victory stat from? I am always looking for better sources. The source I quoted had the P-47 with only 3661 airkills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 Hacker, it came from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_P-47_Thunderbolt Interesting photo on that page, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P-47_gun_harmonization_1945_page_35.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hoss Carpenter, SASS Life 7843 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I had a Uncle who flew Jugs in Europe; they were simply great airplanes. However , I still love the 51 D with the Rolls Royce Merlin engine. I also like the Spitfire with the same RR engine. Got to see some of them fly at RAF Coningsby in 1979 on a four day TDY there with the USAF and RAf. Coningsby is the RAF base for their Heritage Fleet of WW2 aircraft. Hoss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The P-51D was equipped with the Packard V-1650-7, a Merlin clone under license. Hoss did you get to Duxford? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Dan, SASS #24025 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 As a kid growing up in the 50's, the Corsair was my favorite WW II fighter plane and the B-25 my favorite bomber. Why? I just liked the way they looked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I'm a miniatures wargamer and here is a pic from a WWII game of a U.S. P-47 making a ground attack against German Panthers and 10.5cm howitzers. (All these war gaming models mine.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Restoration work on old planes is very tedious and sometimes frustrating. In my other life when I was gainfully employed, my company (Northrop) had a group of volunteers (I was one) that worked on old aircraft produced by the company to restore them to museum and sometimes even flight status. Lots of parts had to be fabricated from scratch with no engineering drawings existing. Lots of trial & error, grinding, fitting and scrapping and starting over. Takes lots of time and you can't get in a hurry. We worked literally 1000's of hours on a float plane (pre WWII era) that the company had sold to Norway. It way found at the bottom of a lake. Painstaking work, but still a lot of fun. My hats off to anyone that does this, it is truly a work of love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 There are plenty of ways to argue in favor of a specific aircraft as being the "best" fighter. Top aces, most aces, most aircraft shot down, etc... My favorite American fighter of WWII will always be the P-38 Lightning. (Don't ask me to choose between the Lightning and the Spitfire) The Lightning was there from beginning to end, it served in pretty much every capacity you could imagine, from long range escort, to bombing, to CAS, to photo-recon. If I recall correctly, there were even experiments to use it with a torpedo. I have even read one treatise by an Aussie that more or less asserts that it was the plane that made the difference for us. Found it again: http://www.ausairpower.net/P-38-Analysis.html#mozTocId128086 PS. The F-35 is ANYTHING BUT a close air support aircraft. There is a reason the Warthog is the Thunderbolt II. Rotary winged aircraft have their place, but are more delicate than the fixed wing sort. My thinking on all accounts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.