WWII Corsiar & US Navy!

Navy wants Minnesota mechanic to return salvaged WWII plane
By Associated Press, 3/27/2004 12:00

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The federal government has filed a lawsuit against a
Minnesota mechanic to retrieve the wreckage of a Corsair fighter that the U.S. Navy
abandoned after it crashed in a North Carolina swamp in 1944.
Lex Cralley, who says he has a passion for preserving World War II aviation
history, salvaged the pieces of the plane in 1990 and transported it to a
storage facility near his home in Princeton. He then registered it as a
”non-airworthy model” with the Federal Aviation Administration and began the
painstaking work of restoration. The task is still long from complete.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department, acting as an agent for the Navy,
filed a lawsuit in Minneapolis seeking the plane, the cost of returning it and
compensation for ”any damage to or alteration of” the aircraft since Cralley
dug it out of the swamp.
”As owner of this aircraft, I will vigorously defend my position,” Cralley
said Friday, though he added that the government’s legal move has him rattled.
”I’m just a little guy,” said Cralley, 49, an aviation mechanic. ”I have
no wealth, work for a living, have four kids.”
The lawsuit doesn’t state why the pieces of the plane are so important to the
Navy.
”We’re not going to provide anything more than what we’ll be saying in
court,” said Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department’s civil
division in Washington.
But historical airplane enthusiasts say they know the reason for the
government’s interest: Though it looks almost exactly like all the other Corsair
warbirds from World War II, Cralley’s plane is the only model of a particular
Corsair fighter known to exist.
Specifically, it’s a ”Brewster F3A-1” Corsair, manufactured by the Brewster
Aeronautical Corp. of Long Island, N.Y., after the original manufacturer, the
Chance Vought Aircraft Corp. of Stratford, Conn., became overwhelmed by a
wartime demand for new planes. Neither company exists today.
Brewster built 735 versions of the F3A-1, compared to more than 12,000 F4U
Corsairs built by Chance Vought. Among aircraft historians, that’s an important
distinction that could amount to millions of dollars in value if the plane is
ever restored to flying condition.
”I don’t know of any airworthy Corsair that sold in the last five years for
less than $1 million,” said **** Phillips, a retired Northwest Airlines
executive from Burnsville who writes books about World War II aircraft. He said
only about two dozen Corsairs are still flying.
The lawsuit claims Cralley put a value of $5.5 million on the Corsair when
officials first demanded its return. Cralley declined to comment about specific
claims in the lawsuit.
Originally designed to land on aircraft carriers, the single-engine Corsair
is still one of the most recognizable fighter planes from World War II. Its
distinctive characteristics were a long fuselage, a huge radial engine with a
giant propeller and a unique inverted ”gull wing” design that made it possible
to land low without dragging the prop on the deck.
The plane that crashed in North Carolina on Dec. 19, 1944, was on a training
flight from the Cherry Point Marine Corps Training Station. The pilot died and
Navy personnel stripped the downed aircraft of its weapons and other
equipment before leaving it.
Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http:// http://WWW.TWINCITIES.COM