F4U-7 Corsair "BLUE MAX"

[Elroy13]

In 1987 this Corsair was in a crash near San Diego @ Brown Field.... can someone tell me what happened or how it happened?

[MX304]

If I am remembering correctly, the aircraft had just sold to a new owner. He did a loop too low, and burried it.

[sledge39]

____

...here's the crash report...

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 0954&key=1


____

[Elroy13]

Thanks sledge!

[F4U-7]

That story of the airplane being sold to a new owner is INCORRECT.

Bob Guilford, Marshall Moss, Dave Price and others headed down to Brown Field for the airshow in May of '87. Marshall was flying the Corsair while Bob was flying Dave Price's Mk.IX Spitfire. Bob owned Blue Max for many years (16+) and had years prior, sold a partial non-controlling 'interest' in the plane to Marshall.

Marshall took an airshow volunteer for a complimentary ride at the end of the show and while, presumably, performing a roll at low level, either lost his attitude awareness due to the obscured horizon or was otherwise incapacitated. The NTSB crash report states that the plane went in inverted from a low level.

Last edited by F4U-7 on Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[corsair166b]

Story I got years ago somewhat jives with the report...I got 'giving his girlfriend a ride', and I have to believe the girlfriend is the airshow volunteer named in the report...at any rate, it's gone, parts of it live on in the Lone Star F4U-5 (I have pics of it outside Nelson's hangar being picked over for useable parts)...and to be honest, a piece of it sits about 20 feet from me, along with a pic of it on the wall from a frined who shot it at OSH some years ago.

M

[MX304]

F4U-7 Thanks for the clarification and the awesome shot!

[Lynn Allen]

I to have some shots of it behind Nelson's, just a pile of little bits. I came across them looking for Erik's pictures....

Lynn

[Tulio]

Just to clear my confusion:

This Corsair, IS NOT the one owned by someone in Colorado, that is now being restored by Ezell in Breckenridge, right?

Saludos,


Tulio

[Elroy13]

Just to clear my confusion:

This Corsair, IS NOT the one owned by someone in Colorado, that is now being restored by Ezell in Breckenridge, right?

Saludos,


Tulio

Ezell did the restoration on the LSFM Corsair. Parts from Blue Max were used.

[Stephanie]

F4U-7, the Corsair is my favorite plane and that picture is beautiful, I completely love it! Thanks for posting it.

[JohnH]

Thanks F4U7, I was going to post what you did. For some reason wrong information about the crash keeps coming up on here. Not too long ago someone on here called Moss a kid, but he was no kid. But a man in his mid 50's or 60's . The ride was being given to a hard working airshow volunteer, never heard anything about her being a girlfriend.

JH

[phil65]

Is this the same aircraft a younger Gary of FiFi/Diamond Lil fame has posted on page 4 of Introductions?

[retroaviation]

Is this the same aircraft a younger Gary of FiFi/Diamond Lil fame has posted on page 4 of Introductions?

Yep, that's the same airplane. Many years later, when I went to work for Nelson, I was told at one point to go get a bracket or something off of that ol' Corsair wreck back in the horse pasture. I got sick to my stomach when I found out it was the Blue Max that I was picking parts off of. It just broke my heart when thinking of that childhood picture.

However, when thinking about it further, if the airplane could never fly again (trust me, that was indeed the case), it was still good that it could keep others flying, so that made me feel better about it.

Gary

[agent86]

I first saw Blue Max at the Mojave airraces in 1974.It was the first Corsair that I ever saw in person let alone fly and I thought it was so cool.It wasnt real fast in the races and I overheard some fellow "Airrace experts"saying that it was slow cause it" still had all its guns!"Being 13 yrs old and still kinda green,I thought "Wow!",that fact made "Blue Max" even cooler