Lawmaker gets Navy to drop its plane claim; Aviation enthusiast wants to restore vintage Corsair

Hearst News Service (via Houston Chronicle) ^ | 5/22/2004 | ERIC ROSENBERG

[hchutch]

WASHINGTON -- Buckling to congressional pressure, the Navy has reversed course and agreed to give the rusting hulk of a demolished World War II-era aircraft to a Princeton, Minn., aviation buff who is restoring the plane.

Lex Cralley, a ground services mechanic for an airline, dug up the abandoned Corsair fighter plane in Craven County, N.C., in 1991 and took it home to Minnesota. The airplane had crashed Dec. 19, 1944.

With its unique gull-wing design, the Corsair was one of the most recognizable airplanes of World War II. U.S. pilots flew the propeller-powered plane in such storied campaigns as Okinawa and Guadalcanal. Enemy troops called it "whistling death" for its distinctive high-pitched sound when diving.

Legal problems for Cralley began in March when the Justice Department sued him in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, claiming that the Navy wanted the airplane back and accusing him of stealing it.

When he learned of the lawsuit, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., stepped in to help Cralley. He asked the Navy to drop the claim and give the battered fighter aircraft to Cralley.

Jones said last week that Alberto Mora, the Navy's top lawyer, has agreed to do so.

"The Navy is working with us to transfer the title to Mr. Cralley," Jones said. The Navy is now "fully supportive" of dropping the suit, he added.

A Navy spokesman declined comment, steering questions to the Justice Department. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller also declined to comment.

Cralley, 49, said he was relieved by the Navy's agreement to transfer title to the Corsair.

"It was a whole lot more work to retain the plane than to obtain it," he said from his Minnesota home, expressing thanks to Jones for helping resolve the dispute.

On May 10, government attorneys and an appraiser of vintage aircraft traveled to Cralley's workshop in Princeton and spent four hours surveying the plane, according to Boyd Ratchye, Cralley's Minneapolis-based lawyer. The government lawyers also showed him the draft language of a congressional amendment that would cede title of the Corsair to Cralley, thereby ending the lawsuit.

"Both sides want to get rid of the lawsuit," Ratchye said.

The House and Senate are expected to pass the measure this summer.

Cralley has been recovering aviation wrecks for years, but the Corsair was his first major restoration project. He said he found out about the wreck from other aviation enthusiasts.

Cralley says he's uncertain whether the Corsair will ever fly again.

[hchutch]

About time the Navy showed some sense.

[hchutch]

Took enough time to get this done.

Note to the Navy: Pick up your aircraft. Push `em over the side, and it's pretty darn obvious you don't want the plane any more.

Time for Doug Champlin to pick up HIS torpedo plane... the Navy's "dog in the manger" act needs to stop. ASAP.

[hchutch]

FYI.

[Camel Joe]

They were'nt even smart enough to let him finish it before crying "mine mine".

[SJackson]

And it takes Congress to do this, amazing.

I won't tell them about my Civil War bullets if you won't. Besides, I'm sure the farmer who found them had a salvage contract.

[Duke809]

Doug Champlin, is he the guy who is fighting the Navy over a TBD?

My understanding is that the TBD is still at the bottom of the ocean and the Navy and the Naval Aviation Museum have claims to all naval aircraft, regardless of condition.

I read somewhere the the Navy wanted nothing to do with the TBD until they found out it was in restoreable condition and could be made to fly again.

[Cicero]

When I was a kid my favorite planes were the P-51 Mustang and the Corsair. I love the wing shape on the Corsair.

[Johnny Gage]

For you Corsair lovers!

Air Power
Vought F-4U Corsair

Originating in a 1938 Navy spec, when the need to replace the F2A and F4F could already be foreseen, the Vought Corsair was designed around an engine that also didn't exist yet: the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, a monster 18 cylinder double radial, eventually capable of 2250 horsepower. (During the Corsair's development, corporate reorganizations brought the Vought company into Vought-Sikorsky and then Chance Vought, all part of United Aircraft, along with Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton Standard.)

The huge engine dictated much of the plane's design. Such a powerplant needed a comparably big propeller to absorb all that horsepower. Thus the 13' 4" diameter Hamilton Standard prop, the largest fitted to a fighter at that time. The Corsair's fuselage had to be high in the air, to give the prop clearance, But ordinary, straight wings at that height would have implied long (and weak) landing gear. The distinctive bent wings were developed to permit a reasonably short undercarriage.

The XF4U first flew in May 1940, and in October flew faster than 400 MPH, a record for a production fighter. A major re-design pushed the cockpit back 32 inches, which resulted in poor forward vision for the pilot, at least on take-off and landing. Development continued into 1942, when Vought delivered the first production F4U-1 to the Navy, which didn't like what it saw, especially when compared to the easier-handling, and very capable F6F Hellcat. The F4U had dangerous stall behavior, had tendency to yaw suddenly when landing, and, worst off all, bounced when it hit the deck. For use on carriers, these problems caused the Navy to insist that they be fixed, while it went ahead equipping with the Hellcat.

But the Marines, operating from land bases in the Solomons, needed capable new fighters to replace their aging F4F Wildcats. By late 1942, the first USMC squadron, VMF-124, took delivery of the Corsair F4U-1. In early 1943, they began to see combat, and were a huge success - with speed, maneuverability, firepower, and ability to absorb battle damage. By the summer of 1943, most of the Marine fighting squadrons had transitioned to the F4U-1, the first operational model, fitted with a distinctive "birdcage" canopy, as shown in the detail of a plane flown by Ed Olander (number 576). Boyington's squadron, VMF-214, switched over to Corsairs before they started their September 1943 combat tour.

The F4U is regarded by many as one of the greatest combat aircraft in history, and was in production for a longer period of time than any US fighter other than the F4 Phantom. As conceived it was intended to mount the most powerful engine, and biggest propeller, of any fighter in existence, and the prototype was the first US combat aircraft to exceed 400mph. However, early experience suggested that the design was in fact a disastrous failure, especially for carrier operations. The extraordinarily long nose interfered with visibility ahead in a way which particularly caused problems during landing and take-off. The undercarriage had a tendency to break, and the aircraft also had an inclination to bounce alarmingly on landing. As a result the US Navy at first rejected it for shipboard operation. Nonetheless the F4U was adopted by the Marine Corps and quickly demonstrated its effectiveness. Although its low rate-of-turn made it a very limited dogfighter its merits more than compensated for this and its other faults. Its great power, speed and rate of climb, its capacity to roll very rapidly, combined with a powerful armament - and large ammunition supply - and a quite exceptional resistance to battle damage, meant that in early 1943 ( in the Solomons) it quickly demonstrated its great superiority over the enemy fighters. By the end of hostilities in the Pacific War it had established an 11:1 "kill" ratio against Japanese aircraft.

At a time when the US Navy still considered it unsuitable for carrier use it was provided to the British Fleet Air Arm under Lend-Lease. The British Navy was desperately short of suitable high-performance fighters and therefore persevered with the Corsair, despite its problems, and the Fleet Air Arm's pilots quickly learned to cope with some of the aircraft's idiosyncracies. In any event improved versions, which amongst other things corrected the faults in the undercarriage, were later to became available.

The US Navy finally adopted the F4U as a shipboard fighter-bomber in November 1944, and by early 1945 large numbers were operating from the fast carriers of the Pacific Fleet - although the longer-established and very capable Grumman F6F Hellcat remained somewhat more numerous aboard the carriers right up to the war's end.

However, while the F6F was phased out shortly after World War Two the Corsair continued in service, and new versions were developed. The F4U was used extensively in the Korean War, and production continued until December 1952, by which time 12,571 had been built.

Many remember this plane from TV show about Maj. Greg "Pappy" Boyington, and his BLACK SHEEP (VMF-214)

Specifications

Contractor Chance Vought Division of United Aircraft Corporation (also built by Brewster and Goodyear)
Type: Single-seat carrier-based fighter-bomber
Engine:
(F4U-1) 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8 (B) Double Wasp 18-cylinder two-row radial
(F4U-1A) 2,250 hp R-2800-8 (W) with water injection
(F4U-4) 2,450 hp R-2800-18 (W) with water-methanol
(F4U-5) 2,850 hp R-2800-32 (E) with water-methanol


Dimensions:
Span: 41' (12.48 metres) British version 39' 7"
Length: 33' 8" - 34' 6" according to version
Weight: (F4U-1A) 8,873 lb (4,025 kg)

Performance:
Maximum Speed: (F4U-1A) 395 mph (F4U-5) 462 mph
Initial Climb: (F4U-1A) 2,890 feet per minute (F4U-5) 4,800 feet per minute
Service Ceiling: F4U-1A) 37,000 feet (F4U-5) 44,000 feet
Range: (on internal fuel): 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometres)

Armaments:
Guns:
(early versions) 6 x 0.5" Browning MG53-2 machine-guns in outer wings, with 390 rounds per gun
(F4U-1C onwards) 4 x 20mm. cannon in wings

Bombs/Rockets:
(F4U-1D and most subsequent versions) 2 x 1,000 lb bombs or 8 x 5-inch rockets under wings

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[Constitution Day]

Good!

[Constitution Day]

When he learned of the lawsuit, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., stepped in to help Cralley. He asked the Navy to drop the claim and give the battered fighter aircraft to Cralley.

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NC *Ping*

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[tet68]

Right on Johnny!
That first one with HP on the tail was from my old outfits
early beginnings. In Vietnam,we were VMA -223 WP as they had transitioned to attack bombers (A-4 skyhawks) but on Gaudalcanal they were VMF (fighters)223 Corsairs!

What a great aircraft!

[tophat9000]

the Navy's "dog in the manger" act needs to stop.

You got that right ...That TBD is the only known one left in the world and just sitting there rotting right now.

Considering the TBD history, First Navy monoplane, Torpedo 8 story, you would think Navy would be overjoyed to see to a TBD recovered and restored

[Chewbacca]

Wasn't the Corsair also the only known propeller driven aircraft to shoot down a Mig fighter during Korean War?

[tophat9000]

Wasn't the Corsair also the only known propeller driven aircraft to shoot down a Mig fighter during Korean War?

No ...But the only Navy ace in Korean flew a Corsair... a night figher nail 5 bedcheck charles (old biplanes)

[PoorMuttly]

If they would like to leave it in Muttly's yard....he wouldn't mind.

[ken5050]

I find it hard to believe that the wreck was just laying there.. Nobody else knew? was it totally buried?...any more info?

[Billthedrill]

Incredible aircraft, one of the best ground-attack platforms of the war. But anyone brave enough to land that thing on the deck of a carrier gets a tip of the BtD chapeau. I sat in one once - you CANNOT see forward in a nose-high landing attitude.

[Johnny Gage]

Nope.. it would be one of these bad boys:

"A-1H Skyraiders of the 77th Task Force hold the incredible feat of shooting down two Mig 17s. "

[Defend the Second]

Here's another picture in which a Corsair plays a part, albeit a secondary role...

[devolve]

no graphics tricks on this one