Warbird Information Exchange

Back in 1978 my father and his partner purchased one of the Honduran F4U-5NL projects from Hollywood Wings. They sold the project to Pete Thelen in about 1986 to focus their efforts on developing Creve Coeur Airport. I've always known that there was an ID-data plate-registration switch but I'm not sure the WIX registry is correct. The project went directly from Hollywood Wings to my father and his partner, there was never a guy named Terry Randall or Har-Ran Aviation involved. I Know Pete purchased one or two more project -5s as parts sources but I only see one listed in the registry.

When we sold the plane to Pete, it was about 90% to 95% complete as far as the big pieces are concerned and I know the plane's paint markings were HAF 806 or 908. It depends on how the panels go in the photo below. I remember stripping the paint off of the back of the fuselage and finding the original BU number but I'm not sure we took a photo of it. Ok, Tulio, work your magic. What Corsair did we really own? What was it's BU# if it was Honduran 806 or 908?

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

The plane was BuNo. 124493 (FAH-608). I take it John Mullen is your father? I spoke with him many years ago about the plane but was unaware of a partner. I'd love to know who that was. Very cool photos btw!! If you have any more I'm sure me and the rest of the guys here would love to see them!

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

A little ot! The other Corsair that was restored for Peter Thelen was Bu123268/122179, here are a few pictures from when Glenn Wegman was finishing it up in Florida. Now in Michigan with Dave Folk

F4U-5NL BuNo. 124493.Aircraft was delivered to Honduras in 1956.
Photo taken in Texas,1953 and scanned from original negative (1 of 2).

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http://catrachowings.com/foro/index.php

The Warbirds Directory entry, Albert. Geoff doesn't just take secondary sources, but cross checks original documentation and original aircraft. However, as we all (should) know, if someone, somewhere really wants to run a ringer, then...



You can BUY the Directory here: http://www.warbirdsdirectory.goodall.com.au/

Does that square with your understanding?

HTH.

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

Al,

I am afraid than, other than an additional photo of -608, that I cannot publish here, I have basically no information on the service life of this airplane.

It is my understanding that you were interested in knowing details about the operational life of this Corsair while with the FAH.

My plan is to ask the owner of the image for his permission to share it and if I obtain it, I will bring the image to you, Saturday next week.


Saludos,


Tulio

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Why take the best part of life out of your life, when you can have life with the best part of your life in your life?

I am one of them 'futbol' people.

Will the previous owner has pics of this double cabin sample

GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

Sooooo, how am I going to know to press 1 or 2, if I do not speak English????

Rob, Thanks for the info. Now I'm really confused about the "real" ID of the Corsair project we owned. I guess I'll need to do some more digging. My father is Al Stix Sr. Sadly, John Mullen was sent west by his evil good for nothing bimbo girlfriend who gave him a lethal dose of poison on June 29, 2004. We all miss him very much. More on that horrible event on this link.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2005-11- ... n-arrival/

cg51, I did not know that Pete had another -5 Corsair built. That one sure looks like the one that we sold him. I know he purchased one or two more projects but I thought he sold them off as projects. I guess I can try to find Pete, is he still around?

Jaldo, Great photo of BU124493 which may indeed have been the plane that we wound up with. The photo has vanished, what happened?

JDK, I guess that maybe our plane was not BU123168 or BU122179 but maybe BU124493? But then maybe we just had some cowling pieces from HAF-608? I'm more intrigued now than ever before.

Tulio, yes, I'm most interested in our old Corsair projects history before we owned it. I'm curious about it's U.S. service as well as it's HAF service but in order to get started I need to confirm (if possible) what plane we really had.

Thanks for the help all. I'll Call John Mullen's son this evening and see if he has any photos from his father's estate. His son and I spent countless hours working on this plane as kids. Rather than load up with post with bad scans of poor quality photos, here's the photobucket link where I'm dumping the raw images as I find them. Thanks again guys, I appreciate the help.
Albert Stix

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c21/a ... 0BU123168/

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Photo and info via FAH 619;

This was FAH 603 in the background Buno 123168 at Tgu c. 1978. In the foreground is F4U-4 FAH 616.
That was the way Buno 123168 FAH 603 was at the boneyard at TNT/TGU c. 1978. It had Navy markings of NP #8 on the wings & VC-3 SQ.

Albert, I can assure you without a doubt that your plane was in fact F4U-5N, BuNo.124493. I've been crunching the minutae of the world's surviving Corsairs for the last 25 years with very particular interest on the Honduran and Salvadoran aircraft.

I was in solid contact with Pete Thelen back during the mid/late 1980's when he was collecting Corsair components. At the time, BuNo.123168 was still unidentified, so he and his chief restoration specialist Glen Wegman used the identity (and various parts) from the crashed BuNo.122179 to help complete and register that aircraft (we discovered its true identity soon thereafter). Many parts from the crashed BuNo.122179 also ended up serving to fill in the final cosmetic voids with your plane (BuNo.124493) to make it externally complete. Pete also owned a fourth Corsair (F4U-5NL, BuNo.124692) that's now flying with the Collings Foundation.

Pete specifically purchased BuNo.124493 to serve as bartering material in a deal between Walt Disney Studios and the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum. BuNo.124493 served as payment to the RNZAF Museum in exchange for Disney's use of one of their air bases as a backdrop for a movie production.

The RNZAF Museum later traded BuNo.124493 to a Australian collector Graham Hosking who's been slowly working to return the plane to airworthy condition for the last 13 years.

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Rob,
I'm lost. We were all told that when Pete finished the plane he sold it to Doug Arnold in the UK and had Mike Wright fly it over to Doug's place. When I went to work for Evergreen in 89', one of my first jobs was to go over and visit Doug so we could talk about flying the P-38 back to Marana. Since Mike flew the plane to Doug, he was our first choice to make the return trip in it. When he arrived at Marana with the P-38 a few months later, he and I talked about his trip delivering the -5NL to Doug and he confirmed it was the one we had once owned. Last time I spoke with Jim Read, and it's been a while, he seemed sure that his -5NL (purchased from Doug's estate or his son or whatever) was in fact the plane that we had in St. Louis from about 78' to 86'. I heard that Jim has since sold the plane and I think it's still in the Midwest, maybe still at the same airport. Help me out, what am I missing? Was the plane I looked at in Doug Arnold's hangar back in 1990 not our old Corsair? If I'm reading your last post correctly, you are saying that our old Corsair (BU124493) is being restored by Graham Hosking in Australia?

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

I hate to tell you guys where I think this is all leading but I guess you can figure it out. I Googled Graham Hosking looking for images of the -5NL Corsair he is restoring. The images on this website below Do NOT show the Corair we had in St. Louis. As you can see from the images on my Photobucket page, we had 95% of HAF 608 (BU124493?). Sorry guys but clearly there's been a game of three card monte with data plates and registrations.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/cafcorsair/ ... sairs.html

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Albert Stix Jr.
"Work is the curse of the drinking class"

Gentlemen;
The following information via FAH 619 in an attempt to clarify issues between XFAH F4U-5N #603 & & F4U-5N X FAH608 Buno 124493. Both at Pete Thelen hangar at Ft Lauderdale June 1987.
1. The XFAH 603 Buno 123168 was the sample that Pete selected to restore to airworthy condition in c.1987. This is the fuselage that matches the schemes and progress restoration that Al has posted already.
2. The XFAH 608 Buno 124493 fuselage only lent bits & pieces to the restoration of the X FAH603 hence the cowling numbers "608". This fuselage never went beyond the status the picture that we'll exhibit in 24 Hrs. This is the sample that went to New Zealand and is now in Perth, Australia on a slow restoration. Pics will follow tomorrow!!
Al, the plane that you had in St Louis is the X FAH 603 Buno 123168 and not the x FAH 608. (With the engine cowlings of the FAH 608). When the stuff was sold to Hollywood wings all kind of parts went into diff containers.

There's a member of this forum who's actually working on the restoration of the x FAH-608 in Australia,his nickname is OZFURYFAN and his name is Peter.
Last year,Graham Hoskin and Co. went to Honduras to look for info and spare parts for his Corsair.
We are very honored that when this aircraft's restoration is finished,it will be displaying the Honduras Air Force colors as FAH-608!



Top 2 photos by G. Hoskings via Gerardo Carvajal
Bottom picture Eduardo Sosa

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That is excellent news Jaldo! Seeing one of the many Honduran Corsairs finally fly in its original FAH scheme has been a long time coming.

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Excellent to hear that a Honduran corsair is finally going to be represented properly. Interestingly, for me, I supplied a couple of parts for this corsair a few years ago.... I'm very excited to see her fly!

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com