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Re: F4U-5N from Barnstormers

Posted by Rob Mears on Sun Nov 24, 2002 04:17:41 AM

In reply top Re: F4U-5N from Barnstormers posted by Chuck on Sat Nov 23, 2002 01:17:54 PM

: The registry list this Bu # as Jim Read's Corsair. So, wha
: t Corasir(s) are being discussed here in this add?


This would be the parts plane that supplied its identity to aid in the registration of (unidentified at the time) BuNo.123168 during the mid-1980's.

BuNo.123168 had apparently been relieved of its data plate while still with the Fuerza Area Hondurena in Honduras. It was a straight airframe, and following its return to the States it became the subject of a most excellent rebuild by Glenn Wegman for Pete Thelen in Florida.

BuNo.122179 had crashed and caught fire a couple of years earlier, and its burnt-out airframe (BuNo.122179) was called upon to supply a substantial number of parts for the rebuild of the unidentified Corsair. In mid-1980's terms BuNo.122179 had effectively been destroyed after having its main spar partially melted in the crash landing. Even as late as 1987 I don?t think anyone figured it would ever be financially feasible to scratch build the Corsair?s behemoth main spar, and the controversy surrounding ?data plate restorations? had yet to become the conscious distraction it is today.

Just after the restoration was completed, we determined by process of elimination (judging from export & import documents) that the only F4U-5 airframe unaccounted for was BuNo.123168. By that time the plane was registered using the number ?122179? and the rest is history.

Now that Tom Reiley?s facility has proven that the scratch building of an F4U main spar can be accomplished, the wreckage of BuNo.122179 has all of a sudden come back to light as a viable basis for restoration (albeit a challenging one, to put it modestly). Hopefully someone will step up and bring these forlorn parts plane back from the dead.

*I suppose using the number"123168" for its registration would at least serve as a quasi reminder as to the relationship between the two planes. Not sure what kind of red tape would present itself in trying to return the respective identities to their proper airframes.

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