Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Friday Flyby - August 2015 (La Deuxième Partie) On a Sunday No Less!

Fleet Air Arm Corsair Is at NAS Quonset Point, 1943. (Source)
After some protestations from two of the peanut gallery, er I mean, Loyal Readers, about my not including their favorite aircraft in the inaugural my favorite aircraft Friday Flyby, I have, with graciousness, patience and humility (well, not so much that last one) decided to devote a my favorite aircraft post to the most magnificent and awesome Corsair.

And she is a favorite of mine!

Yes, Old NFO and Murphy, your pleas have been heard at the highest levels here at Chez Sarge, so I hereby grant your wish. (Anyone else who has a favorite aircraft which is not in this post, read that first paragraph again. No, "Hey, I don't see the P-38 in this post! That's a great aircraft!" Once again I would counsel patience. If it ain't a Corsair, or Corsair related, you will not see it in this post. FWIW, I do take requests. But not right now. Also, I did sneak a P-38 in, see the videos...)

So that first photo was an "I had no ideer" sort of thing (with the appropriate tip o' the hat to my dear departed buddy Buck). Fleet Air Arm Corsairs out at Quonset, in Little Rhody? No, really. Too cool. Apparently the Brits would train their Nasal Radiators over there and then they and their birds would ship out on escort carriers. You can read about that here.

Before we proceed, I know that this is a Sunday and the Friday Flyby is, well the name says it all, a Friday kind of thing. But I could not ignore the cries of my people begging for Corsairs. So, this is Part Two (the French bit in the title) of the Friday Flyby from Friday last. Just for Old NFO and Murph. I mean I like those guys, how could I ignore their whining pleas?

Now I've seen Corsairs in person, these guys:

This bird is at Udvar-Hazy. I feel sad that she hangs from the ceiling.

Now this beauty is at Pungo. Note the drip pans, yup she still flies!
And I've seen them in the air as well, most memorably this one at the VE Day flyover in DC back in May.

Missing Man Formation
While the P-40, Avenger and P-51 hold formation, the Corsair does the honors.

I have done Corsair posts before, including this one, dedicated solely to that mighty bird. While researching this post I ran across a few interesting sites dedicated to the Corsair:
  • The Military Factory's page on the Corsair. (There's a lot of good stuff at that site!)
  • F4UCorsair.com (Of course!)
  • Ace Pilots website's page on the guys who flew her in combat. Specs and history. Gotta love it!
Among the other things I found while researching were a crap ton of good videos. I narrowed the field down to four, which one to choose, which one to choose...

Ah, what the heck. Here's all four!





A great aircraft, the Wiki entry on this bird is pretty good. Check it out.

So Old NFO, Murph, we good?

I love this next pic, the old showing the way forward to the new. It's also The WSO's old air wing and Big Time's current air wing, CAG-2.

Lynn Garrison in F4U-7 133693 – N693M leads Corsair IIs of VA-147, over NAS Lemoore, CA, 7 July 1967 prior to first deployment to Vietnam on USS Ranger. The A-7A "NE-300" is the aircraft of the Air Group Commander (CAG) of Attack Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW-2)

26 comments:

  1. Thought I was up on most things Corsair, but Brits flying them was not on my list. Good Job Sarge!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Th Brits figured out the best way to land a Corsair on a carrier, side slip.

      Tough seeing over that long nose!

      Delete
    2. I do believe the Brits flew actually Corsairs off carriers before we did--we kept ours shore based for a while while fiddling with landing gear resilience, or somesuch.

      Delete
    3. I think you're right Cap'n. Our Navy gave them to the Marines who flew them from land.

      The Navy was satisfied with the Hellcat, though the Corsair was a better aircraft.

      Delete
    4. Just had a chance to see the video. Man, visibility out the back of the P-38 is Superb!

      Delete
    5. Hadn't really noticed that before, but yeah it is innit?

      Delete
    6. They did have some for their Fleet Air Arm, and sadness of sadnesses, when the war was over and they asked us how to return them (they were Lend-Lease), we told them to just push them over the side and call them combat losses...and they did! (Sob!) Oh, the humanity!

      Delete
    7. Damn! That sucks in a major way!

      (How deep is the water where they dumped them, also how cold. Just thinking out loud here...)

      Delete
  2. While I think the Spitfires are prettier, the Corsair just looks mean. Except for my Phantoms, the Corsair
    is my favorite flying machine ever. You've started my Sunday off perfect! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to oblige Russ.

      The Corsair looks and sounds like a warbird!

      Delete
    2. And I really loved the second video with the Corsair and the Lightning. The P38 is my other WWII
      favorite. Really got my blood pumping and maybe just a touch misty eyed. But then planes do that
      for me!!!

      Delete
  3. Hey, if a Monday Update can occur at any time, so can Friday Flyby.
    ...and yeah, I'm glad you found a way to get the P-38 into this post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And now the SLUFs have been gone from the fleet longer than the Hogs had been gone from the fleet in that iconic image. Time marches on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know. I still think of the F-15, F-16 and A-10 as being "new."

      Pardon me but I think my age is showing.

      Delete
  5. How can you use French and not include the French using Corsairs?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, in my defense I use French a lot.

      But point well taken, something to be remedied!

      Delete
  6. Oh, he managed to sneak in a bit of French. That last pic is an F4U-7, the French variant.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yep, all good! :-) I like the old radials, and the F-4U actually was a better dogfighter than the Mustang. When you asked guys that flew them both, they always wanted the Corsair in a fight. Thanks for the time and effort to put those up, I hadn't seen that first one before! Flight instruction was 20 minutes :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpxyyLQ7u7g

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I did tell you to be patient. ;)

      Nice video. Where's Murph? Still waiting for him to chime him.

      I'm here for you guys. No, really...

      Delete
  8. Sigh...happy now.

    And Udvay-Hazy hangs that F4U-1D from the ceiling because they rightly suspect that I'd have snuck it out the door and flown it by now if it was still on the ground floor.
    Looking forward to visiting the one at Pungo one day soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whew. I'm glad...

      (Remember, the one at Pungo is flyable, not sure how their security is... Just sayin')

      Delete
  9. So when do we get the NEXT Corsair post?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's just no pleasing you guys is there?

      Sigh...

      We shall see, we shall see.

      Delete

Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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