+ 1 Mk VII at Bullcreek in West Australia
+ 1 Mk I in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra

Ummmmm…. Bruce was referring to Shackletons, not Lancasters.

Cheers,
Richard

Corsairs Over Connecticut

Here are some photographs I took at the Corsairs Over Connecticut gathering in Stratford, CT in 2005.

Images, left to right, top to bottom.

i: two corsairs standing in front of the original hangar used to house corsairs under test at the Stratford corsair factory.

ii: Tom Duffy in “Marines Dream” being assisted by the show ground crew.

iii: The late Gerry Beck in his F4U-4 taxiing in.

iv: Dave Morss in Jerry Yagen’s FG-1D.

v – x: Corsair flight heads out over Long Island Sound (Gerry Beck in F4U-4, Dan Dameo in American Airpower Museum’s FG-1D, and Dave Morss in Jerry Yagen’s FG-1D).

There is another corsair gathering at Stratford scheduled for May 28-29 this year if anyone’s interested.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Cheers,
Richard

Wow! Terrific photos, Richard.
How fortunate to be able to shoot air-to-air.
What was used for a camera ship?

Many thanks AVI… yes, I was very lucky for the opportunity. I flew with Larry Kelley in his beautiful B-25 “Panchito”. If you’d like to see a few more, and some other air-to-airs please do check my website http://www.rmallnutt.com

All the best,
Richard

Stunning work Cees! Just one little question… should you ever need to remove the cockpit from the museum, can it be taken in one piece, or will you need to take her apart. Hopefully, the former! Keep up the great work though, either way.

All the best,
Richard

This was in February 2002 at Kissimee, Florida. At Tom Reilly’s place as Yak 11 Fan correctly stated. RMAllnut states that it is with Vought Heritage in Dallas, is that this one: F4U-X restoration?
This is also a possibility: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/corsairregistry/fg1-76628.html

Yes, it is the F4U-X project. They called it this because there were parts from so many different variants, and there was no official serial number. I found out, when doing a little digging, that the wreck the aircraft was based upon was actually and FG-1D which was mis-identified by the US Park Service (whose land it was recovered from). The restoration was done as a -4 though… so I understand now why Vought Heritage has decided not to assign it a specific variant type, or bureau number. This would also explain why they put a -1 nose cowl on her as well.

Cheers,
Richard

Wonderful stuff!!!

I find it even more interesting in that my grandfather apprenticed at F Hills & Son during the early part of the war. He had probably moved on to Metro Vickers, by the time your aircraft was made, but it’s exciting to me to see something from a factory where he worked. I’d been looking for references to Hills for some time, but not having the proper name for the company probably complicated things, as he referred to it as Hills Aircraft. He said they were making furniture in the same factory. He also mentioned that Fairey Aviation took over the airfield as well, but I’m uncertain of all the details.

Does anyone have any further info. on Hills, or where they were located?

Thanks again for the lovely details on your projects, and the report. Your restoration work is impressive indeed!

All the best,
Richard