Goodyear FG-1D Corsair - Seattle, WA - Static Aircraft Displays on Waymarking.com

This FG-1D, built by Goodyear, was salvaged from Lake Washington after a water landing and restored to its present condition.

Designed and engineered by the Chance Vought Company, the original designation was the Chance Vought F4U Corsair. Built as a WWII carrier based fighter, demand eventually outstripped Vought's production capacity, so models were also made by Goodyear and Brewster.

Serving almost exclusively in the Pacific Theatre in the second world war, it proved to be the most capable carrier based fighter of the war, with the navy counting an 11:1 kill ratio. It also served in the Korean war, primarily as a fighter/bomber, and in the French colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria. As testament to its fine fighting ability it enjoyed the longest production run of any piston engined fighter in US history, from 1942 to 1953.

The FG-1D, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 "Double Wasp" engine producing 2,250 h.p. (as compared to the F4U's 2,000 h.p. engine), could achieve speeds greater than 400 mph - the fastest single engine fighter then being produced.

The reason behind its graceful gull wing shape was a brilliant bit of engineering required to circumvent two seemingly mutually exclusive but necessary design parameters. First, because it was carrier based, it required very strong landing gear, dictating short, strong legs. Also, the gear had to be short enough to fold into the chord of the wing. Second, because of its abundance of power, it swung a very large prop, requiring substantial ground clearance.

So, to keep the landing gear as short as possible while maintaining adequate ground clearance for the prop, the engineers simply bent the wings down from fuselage to landing gear, then back up from landing gear to wingtip. Simple, effective and beautiful.

The Museum of Flight will tell you of this aircraft's history:
"The Museum's Corsair was built in April 1945 and served aboard the USS Intrepid. After the war, it was transferred to the Naval Reserve, and eventually stationed at Naval Air Station, Sand Point, Seattle in 1950. That July, Commander Ralph Milleson made a water landing on Lake Washington following a non-fatal midair collision with another Corsair. The aircraft was recovered from the lake in 1983 and restored.

This aircraft was restored and dedicated to the memory of Lt.(jg) Jerome Reese Schucart, USNR, to serve as a tribute to all military aviators. Jerome died April 13, 1989 in the service of his country.

This aircraft is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, Florida."

This plane's web page can be found here: (visit link)

The Wiki Corsair page is here: (visit link)

Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Goodyear FG-1D Corsair Tail Number: (S/N): SN: 88382 - Tail Marking: "S" Construction:: original aircraft Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington inside / outside: inside Other Information:: Access restrictions: Admission to the museum is $14 for ages 18 and older and $7.50 for ages 5-17. Admission is free on the first Thursday evening of every month from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Visit Instructions:
Photo of aircraft (required - will be interesting to see if the aircraft is ever repainted or progress if being restored)
Photo of serial number (required unless there is not one or it is a replica)
Photo(s) of any artwork on the aircraft (optional but interesting)

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