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)