Warbird Information Exchange

http://www.aviationnews.eu/?p=5751

Can anyone actualy give the fuselage an ID. The reason I say this, is that it is a Bitsa and they are calling it an F4-X without an ID

http://www.voughtaircraft.com/heritage/rest/index.html

But the fuselage must have been from some aircraft in the past??

Thanks

Paul

Cockpit is definitely that of an F4U-4.

It's a collection of different airframes and parts, some different model numbers.
It started with a spar rebuild years ago at Tom Reilly's that turned out to be non-airworthy. The Vought Hertiage Group ended up purchasing the project and found a set of crushed wings. Lots of bondo used on the wings!
I'm not sure what BuNo can be associated with the airframe.
Jerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11465521@N ... 586696069/

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8862380

"Tom's in-house Corsair is owned by John Silberman and is an F4U-4. This particular aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain near Bishop, California, during 1944. The force of the impact spread wreckage on both sides of the mountain with the left wing and tail on the east side and the cockpit, right wing, and engine on the west. Amazingly, the pilot survived the accident and recently visited Tom's facility to view the project. The aircraft was recovered in 1990 and has been undergoing a complete "


Can anyone ID this crash ??

It's not John's Dash 4 and it isn't Kevin Hooey's FG Corsair. It was another one and if I get a chance, I'll dig out my photos from 1989 and take a better look.
Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Thanks for posting this, the link about the Tiger Cruise on the USS Ronald Reagan was also very good

The story as I know it.

The F4U-4 crashed and was abondonded by the Navy on California land.
I had learned of the site years before the recovery but had never visited it. I do have a photo that a friend sent. One Corsair owner said "Lex, I never thought I would see a project worse than yours, I just saw the one that came from a mountain in California and I have changed my mind!". I understand that a CHiPs officer (former?) had learned of the crash site and (alegedly) put together a recovery/sale deal. The recovery of the airframe went reasonably well, however (as I understand) the engine lift went badly. The engine was not pulling from the snow and ice and the helicopter was maxed out. When the engine broke loose the whole deal went South. The engine began a yo yo and limits were exceeded with a crash and loss of the helicopter pilots life. I was not there, but I believe the "story" to be accurate.

Pirate Lex
http://www.BrewsterCorsair.com

_________________
An ego is no match for gravity.

Lex,
Here is the NTSB report,
One Warbird was lost trying to recover another Warbird
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 7917&key=1

_________________
Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
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This is all very confusing

The Helicopter pilot who died was Rory Rogers aged 33, this was definately in 1991 - According to newpaper reports the helicopter accident was on White Mountain Peak, California

So nwo we have 3 dates for the recovery, 1989, 1990 and 1991

Unless there were 2 separate recoveries??
What is interesting is tyge name 'Bob Bishop' and Bishop California!

Old Post By Rob Mears

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... c&start=45

"The Sierra Nevada Mountain Corsair was recovered by a team led by Bob Bishop back around 1991. Before Bishop started the actual recovery, he had to jump through hoops with the US Forestry Service since the wreck was located in a sensitive wildlife area. As part of the agreement, the US Forestry Service was able to provide all of the relevant information and paperwork on the plane. It was well known by that time that the crash was that of an FG-1D, but in the end, the info Bishop received was for an F4U-4 wreck that had apparently crashed in the same general vicinity. That was a goof on the USFS's part though, not Bishop's. They didn't want to push their luck at that point, so they went ahead with what they had. As a result, the actual Bureau Number for the plane is not known. One day I'll scour through all of the FG-1D crash reports to try and match one with the general location of the wreck, but as it is I'm totally loaded up for the next couple or three months.

Once the plane was recovered, Bob Collings bought it and paired it up with his F4U-5NL (124692) restoration project. After it had lent all of the necessary bits and pieces to that project, the remainder of the wreck was purchased by John Silberman as the basis for the infamous "Kissimmee Corsair" project. As we all saw with that restoration, most of the wreckage ended up serving as patterns.

Of course today it's stored at Breckenridge, Texas lending parts to the restoration of the ex-Pardue F4U-4 (97302), after which it is scheduled to be donated to the Vought Heritage Museum as the basis for a restoration to static display."

That's great info.
I thought the Silberman Corsair was still on the East Coast somewhere with Reilly. Well that clears it up a bit. No wonder it's such a hodge podge of parts and Dash numbers. At least it's on display at a worthy location.
Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."