WIX Archives
Re: Corsair in st. Louis back in the 70's
Posted by Shawn on Sat Jul 20, 2002 09:53:00 PM
In reply top Re: Corsair in st. Louis back in the 70's posted by Rob Mears on Sat Jul 20, 2002 12:36:53 AM
: The company was Cupples Products Inc, and in fact they did
: test walls for glass highrises.
:
: The Corsair itself was a surplus FG-1D that had been recen
: tly stricken from active service at the Cherry Point Naval
: Air Station. The owners of Cupples Products decided to b
: uy one of the Corsairs on site there and use it as a wind
: machine for testing their structures. The Navy sold the o
: bsolete fighter to the company for $3000, and even chose t
: o personally oversee the delivery flight of the plane!
:
: The Corsair arrived at the Remert-Werner FBO at Lammert Mu
: nicipal Airport in St. Louis piloted by one of the naval a
: viators from Cherry Point. The pilot turned the plane ove
: r to Cupples who set about immediately removing the wings
: (which were scrapped). Cupples then trucked the wingless
: airframe to their facility where the majority of the rear
: fuselage was also removed and discarded. They then painte
: d their company logo on each side of the forward fuselage
: and set about doing twenty-six years worth of testing with
: the plane.
:
: The Corsair became the company's icon and they were adaman
: t over the years about not selling the plane. Many a prop
: ective buyer was turned away up until the summer of 1994 w
: hen two partners from Kansas decided to start buying up no
: n-airworthy Corsairs. Greg Morris & Jack Reynolds bought
: the Cupples FG-1D, as well as a disassembled F2G-1 "Super
: Corsair" at the same time.
:
: Both Corsairs were immediately put up for resale. In sell
: ing the planes, one of the owners even mentioned that the
: F2G's rear fuselage was in good shape, and could be retrof
: itted to the FG-1D center section if a buyer so wished.
:
: During December of 1995, Brian Farrell and Bob Odeggard go
: t together and purchased the entire lot from the partners
: in Kansas. Mr. Odeggard took the F2G for himself, and Mr.
: Farrell became the new owner of the ex-Cupples FG-1D. Mr
: . Farrell also sourced some outer wing panels for the proj
: ect, but as of yet no rear fuselage AFAIK.
:
: During its time with Cupples the wing hinges on the main s
: par of the FG-1D had been cut off even with the wing stub,
: and the entire area was faired over with sheet aluminum.
: I presume this very factor is the reason the ex-Cupples p
: lane has yet to be considered for serious restoration. It
: 's of course an EXTREMELY dificult task to fabricate a new
: spar for the F4U, as was learned by Tom Reiley while comp
: leting a scratch built unit for John Silberman's "F4U-4" p
: roject a few years back. I doubt even Mr. Reiley would be
: too interested in reliving that headache any time soon :)
:
:
: Rob