WIX Archives

Re: many neat things

Posted by Richard Allnutt on Wed Feb 05, 2003 05:11:16 PM

In reply top Re: many neat things posted by Rob Mears on Wed Feb 05, 2003 03:46:04 PM

Hi Rob... interesting reading re. Lucky Gallon. I have visited Walt's place several times, though was never able to see her. She was supposed to have been stuffed in the C-124 fuselage, but from what Walt said, I thought that the main spar had survived (however, you must remember it had been damaged in a storm when still owned by Cook Cleland... one of the outer wing panels was ripped off, and I believe that it tore up the spar somewhat when this happened). Walt said that he was really sad to have scrapped so much of her, but he had three other corsairs at the time, and times were lean, and he needed to put food on the table. Sad story though, considering how much unique material he has been able preserve. Do you have any photos of her remains that you could send me off line?
On another note, Walt said that he almost saved the F2G which Cleland won the '49 trophy in (Race 94), but when he got to the aircraft there were people from the Crawford museum disassembling it. Apparently Walt believed that they were going to save it, but all they took were the engine, firewall forward, and gave the rest of the aircraft to the fire crew to burn for practice. Apparently this caused a huge rift between Walt, and Jack Crawford, and it took a lot of persuasion on the part of the Crawford museum to get Walt to sell them the F2G he had managed to save (even though Crawford had been dead for years). From what I understand the engine and engine mount from Cleland's white corsair did survive at the Crawford (I am sure I saw them, but can't swear to it), and the engine mount ended up on Bob Odegaard's F2G, Race 57.
I also heard that the remains of Race 94 were burned up pretty well like you said, and then pushed into the old NACA dump at what is now NASA Lewis. Apparently a lot of cool experimental stuff got dumped in there too... it was a natural ravine to the side of the NACA buildings. This area was eventually filled in and chemical tank farm built on top. The area was again rebuilt on for the runway extension last year (as you had mentioned). It is highly unlikely that anything useful could have come from her though, but it would have been great to have at least tried. I know a lot of the people at the Air Racing Society in Cleveland really wanted to have a go at finding her, but there really wasn't any practical way to go about it, especially because of the chemical residues that would be bound to have been present from the chemical tank farm. Anyway, it makes for an interesting story!

Cheers,
Richard

: : Re U-birds, howzabout the stuff Walt Soplata still has
: ?
: : Or the one that got away...or the rumoured buried bits o
: f
: : that other Cleland F2G at Cleveland...
:
: Soplata's FG-1D is definately some of the best unrestored
: warbird material out there IMO. Perfect candidate for a g
: round-up stock restoration.
:
: I wish I could say as much for FG-1A "Lucky Gallon". Heck
: of a rare airplane, but no center wing section to hang th
: e rest of the pieces on :) He has the cockpit section and
: the firewall forward components, as well as the landing g
: ear, flaps, and a couple of other bits. If ever you could
: find some salvagable outer wing panels and a main spar, y
: ou might have the makings for a proper resurrection. I ca
: n think of another project floating around out there that
: someone could pair up with "Lucky Gallon" to bring her bac
: k to life. All it would take is 24/7 & $ :)
:
: There are some buried bit of Cleland's white F2G racer, bu
: t they are now underneath the extended runway at that loca
: tion. On top of that, this airframe served for fire train
: ing with the Cleveland Fire Department for a while. Thin
: aluminum and fire don't mix well, and if it was used for m
: ore than a few burns I'll bet there's not much left but a
: main spar, main gear, and maybe the engine (if it was stil
: l attached by then). It was also rumored as buried along
: with some possible toxic waste materials. You never know
: though. Just the existence of the main spar itself might
: warrant digging up the runway aftre another 20 or 30 years
: of appreciation. The toxic waste factor itself might sta
: nd as a good excuse for digging up the stuff and disposing
: of it in proper fashion.
:
: Of course, if all it took was a main spar to warrant the r
: econstruction of a new F2G, you might could justify the us
: e of the main spar from Dave Etchell's FG-1D project. Dur
: ing disassembly he discovered an "F2G" identifier had been
: stamped into the spar. Apparently it was surplus materia
: l from Super Corsair production that was redirected to the
: FG-1D line. Not really a main spar from an actual flying
: F2G, but a curious find none the less!

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