By Jerry O’Neill
In 2008, Goodyear FG-1D Corsair BuNo. 92460, was removed from its “perch” of 37 years, and brought in from the cold. Since then, it has been under restoration by the caring volunteers at the Connecticut Air and Space Center (CASC) in Stratford, Connecticut. Our last post about this aircraft’s restoration was this article in 2021. Let us take a quick review of its history and restoration to get an up-to-date report on where she stands today.
Corsair BuNo. 92460 was delivered to the U.S. Navy on July 22, 1945 and assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron Three Fourteen (VMF-314) Bob’s Cats and passed through a number of Navy squadrons until she was retired to NAS Litchfield Park, Arizona. Shortly after arriving, she was delivered to El Salvador, where she received Salvadorian Air Force markings and given the identity, FAS 217.
After 12 years of FAS service and a minor accident, 92460 was stored wingless in the boneyard. It was not to take part in the famous, 100-hour-long 1969 “Soccer War” that took place between El Salvador and Honduras. That year, however, the airframe and a set of wings were donated to the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, so it could be transformed into a memorial honoring the pilots who flew Corsairs in combat. This was the brainchild of World War II (WWII) Marine Corps Corsair pilot and then the manager of Bridgeport Municipal Airport, Nick Mainiero. The memorial was constructed at the airport entrance, directly across the street from where the original Chance Vought Corsairs were designed and built. The Corsair was fixed up and then mounted on a concrete pedestal, and, at the time, it was a very fitting memorial.
The sea air along the edge of Long Island Sound can be very unkind to almost anything left out in the open. For the next 37 years, 92460 held her own against winter snows, hurricanes, corrosive bird droppings, and the ever-present salt air. Several different paint schemes were applied over the years to “freshen her up” and give the airframe a modicum of protection. Well known nose art artist, Gay Velasco owner of “Fighting Colors,” performed the last on pedestal repaint in the mid-1990’s, applying Pappy Boyington’s Lucybelle markings from his famous press photo Corsair. She looked great, but within a decade, her age really began to show.
In 2005, the Chance Vought Corsair was designated as the Official Aircraft of the State of Connecticut and that, along with the popular “Corsairs Over Connecticut” airshow held that June, saw the interest in 92460’s health begin to mount. A Corsair Restoration Committee was formed with the original intent to simply fix her up quickly and place her back on the pedestal. A close inspection revealed a massive amount of corrosion throughout the entire airframe, especially the top and bottoms of the wing spars. If not fixed properly, she would soon fall off the pedestal.
She was lifted off the pole in July 2008 and brought to the CASC’s restoration shop. It was in sad shape. Many important parts had been thrown out before she had been installed on the pedestal in an attempt to make her lighter. Control surfaces, wing flaps, dive brakes, and landing gear were missing. Simple sheet metal replaced the missing wing parts.
Serendipitous Happenings
It is now been 17 years since 92460 came in from the cold. She is not going back outside as was the original plan. Though not quite finished, she is on display, warm and cared for in the museum’s hangar. She got to this point by dedicated volunteers, and by some very lucky circumstances and friends who reached out and helped get her restored.
As the museum staff slowly disassembled the Corsair, they got a very close-up look at just how bad the airframe had become. At first, some thought it would be a quick process. Those who were familiar with aircraft knew otherwise. It was a daunting task ahead of the restoration team. CASC realized it would take a bit more skill than was present in Connecticut. Enter Ezell Aviation, of Breckenridge, Texas. They were working on a deep restoration of the only Brewster F3A Corsair in existence and they needed CASC’s help! To build a new center section for the Brewster Corsair, they needed access to an intact center section to build the jig needed to create a new, airworthy center section. It just so happened that 92460 was available, so a deal was made and the center section was sent to Texas along with the tail cone. Cleaned, repaired, and primed, she returned to Connecticut just about a year later.
“If it wasn’t for Ezell, we couldn’t have done it!” stated Mark Corvino, Corsair Project manager and CASC’s President. One bonus from the trip to Texas was a tremendous gift from the late Howard Pardue. He graciously donated of a complete set of non-airworthy landing gear! She now had legs! CASC then gave a surplus CNC Machine to Ezell in trade for the restoration of the outer wing panels right down to the primer coating. The final stages of the restoration for the two wings would be later performed at CASC’s workshop.
“Things got moving pretty well after it came home and on its new gear.” Corvino said. Vulture’s Row in California was restoring several Corsair projects and helped CASC’s project out. “We were able to trade the oil coolers and exhausts to Chuck Whal for non-airworthy parts and ailerons.” Corvino continued. New wheel bearings and rollers were supplied by Bearing Distributors Inc. a local company that supplies the exact same bearings that Ford uses for their F450 pickup trucks.
Help started to flow from all over the globe. Gary Dunn, of the Classic Jet Fighters Museum in Australia, visited several times, helping the crew fabricate special tooling to allow CASC to manufacture hat channels on their shop’s rolling machine. A video team was sent by Goodyear to interview Dick Steele, one of the Corsair restoration volunteers. Dick was a WWII Corsair pilot and after the short documentary was finished, Mark Corvino mention that, “It’s too bad our ‘Goodyear’ Corsair has Michelin tires on it.” “We can’t have that!” was the very instant response from the Goodyear rep. Shortly after that, brand new, Goodyear tires arrived courtesy of the company that built 92460!
In another coincidence, a second Corsair, FG-1D 92050, came to the orbit of 92460’s restoration. The long static display airframe was being restored to flight by the Warbird Heritage Foundation in Illinois. This Goodyear Corsair had been modified for air racing in the early 1970’s and was to be restored to stock military condition. The oil and intercooler intake fairings on the wings leading edge had been highly modified for racing. They asked to borrow ours to reverse engineer new stock intakes. In exchange, they loaned CASC their Corsair’s pilot seat and a wing flap to allow CASC’s volunteers to reverse engineer to replace the missing ones on 92460. At the same time, CASC’s team built the left and right-hand dive drakes from scratch.
The canopy and windscreen also had a unique patron. 92460 had no windscreen Plexiglass and the sliding canopy Plexiglas that CASC had located was used, yellowed, and crazed a bit. The volunteers had been polishing the Plexiglas in the hopes of being able to salvage it when in December 2020, Hollywood called! It seems that Black Label Productions was in pre-production for their film Devotion, the Korean War story of America’s first Black Naval Aviator, Jesse Brown, and his squadron mate Thomas Hudner. The production required some Corsair cockpit parts for the creation of a studio mock-up to shoot the actors in the cockpit “flying” the aircraft in front of a projection screen. The result of helping with this film was all new Plexiglass for 92460, and she became a movie star. You can see her every time that they show the actors in a Corsair cockpit, as the FG-1D canopy is shaped a bit differently than the later F4U-4 and F4U-5 canopies seen on the actual film aircraft, so it is very noticeable.
Replacing fabric covered control surfaces is slowly becoming a lost art. Enter two angels; Jack and Jo Brinkerhoff. They contacted CASC and asked that if the museum supplied the materials, and a place to plug in their camper, they would recover the horizontals and rudder fabric for nothing! It seems they do this for museums around the country and they had not done a Corsair yet! “They are the nicest people on Earth!” stated Corvino glowingly. Control surfaces quickly were done in short order.
February 2025
As of 2025, 92460 still needs work and parts to be finished. The wing panels are soon to be removed and sent out for work to repair several metal ribs, so when the fabric is finally installed on the outer wing, it will lay flat and smooth. The beautiful work done by the Brinkerhoffs on the fabric control surfaces received their final coat of blue at the beginning of February 2025, and reinstalled on the aircraft. “There are still a lot of items to locate and install,” says Corvino. “We’re waiting on a Carb Hat spacer trade, and we’re finishing up a lower intercooler panel that we had to manufacture from scratch.” 92460 still requires a set of the rear tailwheel doors and one side of the main gear doors. Some of the hard-to-find items still on the search list are ammo boxes for the wings, a correct tail hook, and hardware to install the wing flaps.
Precision Industrial Finishing of Shelton, CT has graciously supplied the correct paint, and to date have performed much of the required painting. The final paint for 92460 will wear is the overall dark blue, factory fresh paint scheme that she left the Goodyear factory with back in 1945. Since CASC’s museum hangar is literally across the street from the factory that birthed the first Corsair, a “factory fresh” Corsair is quite fitting tribute to those who designed, built, and flew these magnificent aircraft so many years ago.
There is still a lot to do, but luckily, 92460 has been on public display since she was moved to CASC’s display hangar in May of 2021. “It will be finished,” says Corvino. “We just need to get all those little things done and in the correct order.” With the worldwide help that has come to Stratford, it is assured that 92460 will finally be completed and take her place as the Connecticut icon that she is. For more info or to help the Corsair restoration, visit ctairandspace.org
Hello,
Just an correction, the soccer war was between El Salvador and Honduras,.
You are correct Sir.
It’s interesting how the fabric surfaces come out quite noticeably lighter than the metal parts of the stabilizers. Is that an artifact of the material it’s being painted on, or is there actually differences in the paint? Would you see this same effect on a tricolor or blue gray over light gray pattern?
I’d love a closer (and ideally less reflective) look at the elevator fabric covering. Same for the fabric on the main wing, too. Every plastic model kit ever has exaggerated rib patterns, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, here.