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Brewster Corsair Lawsuit (give me a break)

Posted by Rob Mears on Sun Mar 28, 2004 12:19:03 PM

I see CNN is now reporting on the Navy's shenanigans regarding the Brewster Corsair. As usual their facts are completely askew. From their report I learned that this is the last Corsair on Earth, and it's a jet ;)

I did enjoy the part where they said the Navy couldn't give a solid reason as to why the plane was so valuable to them. I kind of hope this one plays out on the world stage so the Navy can finally show its ass to the world in regard to its ridiculous policies.

All they effectively have there is one partially outer wing panel, the forward half of a tail cone, and a center fuselage section with a smashed spar. Little more than spare parts IMO. It's substantially comparable to the derelict F4U-5 that was in the storage yard behind Tom Reiley's Bombertown. I'd say this surviving Brewster Corsair is only slightly more complete.

Had the pilot gone down with the plane, I would feel differently about its recovery, but that's not the case. This is another recovery that would have never happened if left up to the Navy. They investigated the crash, disarmed it and rendered it useless on site 60 years ago. The only reason its become valuable to them is because a private citizen has done all of the recovery work for them.

The oldest surviving Corsair in the world (F4U-1 "birdcage" model) is still lying completely intact at the bottom of Lake Michigan. It will be interesting to see how much money the Navy will spend in court fighting for the busted Brewster. I'll bet the amount they spend will far exceeed what it would have cost them to recover the FAR more historically relevant F4U-1 from the lake. In my opinion, that would be an excellent point to bring up in court to expose the Navy's penchant for wasting its resources and furthering its bogus claims to ownership over its long forgotten, neglected, and abandoned historical artifacts.

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