Texans Skiing (In formation!!!)

[fireflyr]

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plus
to Fireflyer: You were born and raised in Saskatchewan?
That's where our Canadian Dealership is! Do you know the Yorkton Airport?
www.yorktonaircraft.com
small world.....

Nope-ain't been to Yorkton---lived in Swift Current and Moose Jaw----been US over 45 years, I'm a full bloody Yank now.

[MO]

The term "Super Corsair" refers to the Goodyear F2G-1 fighter, of which only fourteen examples were produced at the Goodyear plant in Akron before WWII ended in August 1945 and none of these saw combat. There were four prototypes and 10 production planes.

Basically, the plane was a further development of the famous F4U "Corsair" fighter that we all know. The aft fuselage was modified and a new "bubble" canopy was fitted, just like those on the P-51Ds and the P-47Ds, for increasing the pilot's visibility. Additionally, Goodyear installed a huge Pratt & Whitney R-4360 "Wasp Major" engine of 28 cylinders, capable of producing 3,500 hp.

Here's a photo of Odegaard's plane, which is one of the few survivors to date... Note the aft fuselage modifications and the shape of the canopy.

Cheers!

[Mike]

Ahhh... I see!
I learned something today. Thanks MO!
Now I can go home and have a beer with a clear concience....

What an awesome plane. I'd like to see that one day in real life.
Did you guys know "Chuck" likes Corsairs as well?
Stay tuned... there might be a few Corsair strips in the future....

[Frank N. O.]

Cool looking thing! I guess it was another big US fighter that had twin-props but I know for a fact a rare late model Spitfire had that.

Frank

[Mike]

Cool looking thing! I guess it was another big US fighter that had twin-props but I know for a fact a rare late model Spitfire had that.

Frank

Twin Props?
What are you talking about? I am not following....

[Frank N. O.]

I just wanted to save some typing space sorry, co-axial counter-rotating propellers where the normal models had one single propeller. I seem to recall there was a big US WW2 fighter that had this in a special rare version so I thought it was the Super Corsair, but know for a fact that a Spitifire model did have two co-axial counter-rotating propellers. It should give more thrust and less torque (if any), which would be a good thing but the transmission is probably heavy and requires some extra power to drive.

Edit: http://www.airshowfan.com/chino.htm Here are some cool photos, two of them showing a blue modified Spitfire with two co-axial propellers. And a Tigercat, the Gnat, and a Starship in a small dark photo at the bottom of the page as well as a big Corsair photo etc.

Frank

[Mike]

The Corsair doesn't have one of those props on though, does it?!
Maybe MO can clear this up...

I saw you have a picture of the "Storch" in there. I used to work on one of those many many years ago when I was a young mechanic helper. What an awesome plane!
It was one of the last Storchs left that had the original wooden spar. All other ones have a modified aluminum structure in the wing. You should have seen the POH, it had a swastika on it and said "Do not take on flights agains enemies". Pretty cool.
The most amazing thing was, IT STILL HAD IT'S ORIGINAL BATTERIES !!
Apparently the germans made some pretty good batteries (NiFe I believe). They were in a wooden box and at the time almost 50 years old. Try that with a modern aircraft battery!!

[Frank N. O.]

Nono that was cleared up a few posts higher up. All Corsairs have a single prop, I must've been thinking of another US plane, but I did find info that some F.21 Spitfires had the counter-rotating props, as well as the Seafires.

Frank

[MO]

Uh... Sorry! No counter rotating props on the Super Corsair... Just one really big fan placed at the very nose of the beast.

Here's another photo of Odegaard's mount, showing clearly of what I'm talking about...

[Mike]

What an awesome huge prop!!
Impressive!

I have to say though that red is not the best color for a Corsair. I'd take the dark blue of Papa Boyingtons planes and the blue with the even lighter blue on the belly of the "Jolly Rogers" anytime....

[fireflyr]

I am not aware of any operational WWII era US fighters with that double prop configeration but Howard Hughes did have a prototype like that, which he crashed.

Mike, you worked on a Storch?  WOW, I have always loved that airplane but have only seen pictures of them, they had to be one of the best, if not the best, STOL airplanes ever built!!     And the batteries!!!, My gosh, that's amazing that they could last that long!   

[MO]

I guess you're right about the Fieseler Stork (Or Storch in English). It was one of the coolest machines in Germany's inventory and very versatile too. I've read somewhere that the production of these planes was moved at some point to France and Poland in order to make room for the Bf-109's production at the main plants.

Also, there's a French version powered by a Salmson radial engine. It was named the Criquet. Very funny looking though...

Cheers!

[fireflyr]

I believe a Storch was used to rescue Mussolini from some very tall mountain hideaway, wasn't it?

And your mention of a French version named Criquet reminds me of the worlds smallest twin (also French) named CRI-CRI,  anyone ever see one of those.   They were really small but amazing to see.

[MO]

Yep, they used a Storch to rescue Mussolini from the Gran Sasso Massif. Here's a interesting article about this:

http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepStorch.html

The title? "Before There Were Helicopters, There Was the Storch"

As for the CRI-CRI that you mention, I haven't seen one yet... Can you post a couple of photos?

Saludos!

[Gulfstream Driver]

Say, MO, where were the pictures of the Corsair taken?