two place Corsair

[crusty old aviator]

Has there ever been two place F4U, F3A, or FG-1? In the early 80's, a man (who had a reputation for tall tales) told me he and his son owned and were flying one.

[wyoranch]

I swear I remember seeing one at NAS Willow Groves annual show years and years ago. It was not really a two seater but it had a hatch right behind the right wing that one of the ground crew entered the plane. I may be crazy but that memory has stuck with me all these years. Feel free to tell me I am nuts, I have been called much worse...... Lol
rick

[Dana]

Many warbirds have added passenger or baggage space where the original WWII radios used to be. I remember seeing Howie Keefe's Miss America P-51 land at Parks Airport years ago (Howie wasn't flying it) and three people got out. No back seats, they were just sitting on the floor (there were harnesses, though).

[wyoranch]

Phewwwwww I feel a little better....

[Dana]

I should add that I was there the next day when the plane departed (it had stopped there for some avionics work). For those who aren't familiar with this plane, Miss America was a clipped wing Reno racer. Since Parks was a major aviation school, the pilot brought it around for a high speed low pas. Wow...

http://www.warbirddepot.com/dbimages/58/58-b-1280.jpg

[rwanttaja]

The Corsair V-354 was a Chance-Vought's private-venture version to try entice sales of a trainer. It was a on-off.

http://celticowboy.com/CDI5.jpg

Others were modified after the war. The Warbird Information Exchange (http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=149082) gave some examples in the discussion ~ten years ago.

Ron Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

Howie set a cross country speed record in that plane in 1972 heading to the Transpo exhibition at Dulles. He recounted the story of that flight to me hanging around the Air Chart Systems booth. Howie and his wife were always fun to talk to.

[Mike Switzer]

My brain is telling me that I have seen pictures of a Corsair variant with a slightly longer fuselage & double canopies (the rear canopy higher than the front). I took some time to look thru some of my reference books this afternoon & I was unable to find it, so I am not sure where that memory came from. Maybe it was just a concept, but my brain is telling me I saw color photos of it. Who knows, I have had enough years to forget & misremember a lot of things.

[martymayes]

Many warbirds have added passenger or baggage space where the original WWII radios used to be.

I believe for the P-51, that was called the Cavalier conversion developed by David Lindsay and the resultant product was called the "Cavalier Mustang." I believe Bob Hoover's famed airshow Mustang(s) was a Cavalier Mustang.

[bigdog]

Cavanaugh Flight Museum has a Corsair with a seat behind the pilot and is offering rides for only $2495. It was at Oshkosh this year and is billed as the only one selling rides. http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/index.php/navwbflights/warbird-rides-on-tour
I've seen at least one other with a rear seat. Look for little windows behind the pilot seat. The other one had dark blue tinted windows so they were less noticeable.

[stearman456]

I swear I remember seeing one at NAS Willow Groves annual show years and years ago. It was not really a two seater but it had a hatch right behind the right wing that one of the ground crew entered the plane. I may be crazy but that memory has stuck with me all these years. Feel free to tell me I am nuts, I have been called much worse...... Lol
rick

You're not crazy. The Corsair with the airstair door on the right hand side aft of the wing was Goodyear FG-1D BuNo 92436, ex N3470G, and currently N72NW. It's since been rebuilt and had the door removed. It was one of the tv "Blacksheep Squadron" Corsairs and belonged to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario but is now is in Olympia, Washington. There was a dual control F4U in Paris, Texas in the 'seventies that was available for checkouts but it burned up in a hangar fire in about 1979. It was a also a "Blacksheep Squadron" airplane, ex Frank Tallman, but apparently the dual controls were pretty crude. It belonged to a guy named Junior Burchinal who had a warbird "school". I don't know what the F4U checkout cost but you could get dual on a B-17 from him for $500/hr back then!

[Justin]

The one that was owned by Jim Reed has the back seat added, and I believe the Kalamazoo Airzoo's Corsair has the rear seat as well.

[Mark Allen M]

This one I recall ...

http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u455/mam121061/Corsair/Two-seat%20Corsair_zpsovko6pzh.jpg (http://s1068.photobucket.com/user/mam121061/media/Corsair/Two-seat%20Corsair_zpsovko6pzh.jpg.html)

[crusty old aviator]

Okay, so maybe old Shmo (that was his nickname) wasn't full of it...just half full. He used to tell people that he had been Greg Boyington's wingman in the South Pacific. He didn't know I was a personal friend of Greg's...I asked Greg about the veracity of Shmo's claim and described him. Greg explained that he'd had over 80 wingmen during the war, so it was possible, but he didn't recall anyone named Shmo at all and he figured he was probably just full of it.

One sunny day at Oshkosh '83, I was sitting in the EAA Commercial Exhibits HQ building (where I was a volunteer co-chair) and spotted old Shmo in a rumpled Nomex jumpsuit, standing in one spot and looking like he was waiting for someone. After about five minutes, I got an idea and ran into the smaller exhibit building to Greg's booth, where he and his lovely wife, Jo, were selling and signing books and prints. I told Greg about Shmo's proximity and Greg said, "Bring him here!" I went outside and there was old Shmo, still waiting. I went up to him and said "Hi Jack, how ya doin'?" He recognized me and seemed in good spirits so I asked, "Have you been in to see your old squadron-mate, Pappy?"
"Oh yeah," he replied.
"Great! Let's go see him now!"
"Oh no, I can't now, I'm waiting for someone."
"You've been waiting for them for over ten minutes, Jack. If they ever show up, they can wait for you!" With that I put my arm around his shoulders and herded him over to the building and into the crowd inside. Jack was about 5' 3" and weighed about 110 pounds, so I ended up partially carrying him through the crowd when he started to balk and proffer excuses. At 6', I was able to poke my head up through the crowd when we were about ten feet from Greg's booth. He just happened to look up then and we made eye contact. I arched my arm over my head and pointed down to Shmo in front of me and nodded with a smile.
Greg smiled back and nodded, then started shouting, "Shmo, is that you?" He stood up behind his table. "Everybody make a path for my old wingman, Shmo!" They parted and I pushed Jack forward to the table where he was face to face with the man himself. Greg extended his hand and when Jack tentatively extended his, Greg grabbed it and started pumping it up and down, exclaiming, "This man saved my life I don't know how many times! He's ten times the pilot I could ever be, drunk or sober, and I thanked God he got us back to base every time we flew together. You should have him sign your books, not me! He's a true hero. Gosh it's good to see you again, Shmo! After all these years, I still recognized you. Well, I have to get back to business here to pay for my trip. Thanks for stopping by!" With that he sat down and winked at me. I grabbed Shmo by the shoulders and we dissolved into the crowd. I left him at one of the building openings and returned to my post.
That evening, I had dinner with Greg and Jo and both were in a very good mood. "I've been waiting many a decade to do that," Greg explained. "Thank you for setting it up for me. It felt really good."
"We'll have to buy you dinner tonight for that," Jo suggested. "Can you imagine how surreal and bewildering it must have been for that funny little man? He's been telling that lie about being Greg's wingman man for God-knows-how-long, knowing full well that it's all hogwash, and then when he finally meets Greg in person, Greg acts like it was the truth...my mind would have blown a fuse if it had been me!"

None of this would have ever happened, if I hadn't have been a loyal EAA volunteer, way back when...

[Bob Dingley]

You're not crazy. The Corsair with the airstair door on the right hand side aft of the wing was Goodyear FG-1D BuNo 92436, ex N3470G, and currently N72NW. It's since been rebuilt and had the door removed. It was one of the tv "Blacksheep Squadron" Corsairs and belonged to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario but is now is in Olympia, Washington. There was a dual control F4U in Paris, Texas in the 'seventies that was available for checkouts but it burned up in a hangar fire in about 1979. It was a also a "Blacksheep Squadron" airplane, ex Frank Tallman, but apparently the dual controls were pretty crude. It belonged to a guy named Junior Burchinal who had a warbird "school". I don't know what the F4U checkout cost but you could get dual on a B-17 from him for $500/hr back then!
I remember that FG-1 at Outlaw field. I used to drop in back in the seventies. It was parked in a ramshackle wood structure and was blocked in by the B-17 (nose art: Balls of Fire). Neither one moved much as the B-17's tail wheel seemed to be sinking deeper into the dirt after each rain.
There were quite a few warbirds at the field. Wildcat, P-51 and a pile of scrap on a trailer that some one said was once a P-38. Interesting story on that one. There was an eclectic line up on the high ground to the SE that included F9Fs, etc and the entire cast of Catch 22.

Bob

[crusty old aviator]

A couple goomers bought one of those B-25's, Berlin Express (nose art was a painting of Hitler's face with crosshairs over it), and donated her to EAA. I spent a LOT of time with Bud Labutski and a small crew restoring that old gal in EAA's hangar at Burlington, WI. I never did get a ride in her, as she first flew after I'd left the project for college. I think she's parked in the Eagle Hangar now. Small world...