Goodyear Corsair FG-1D (G-FGID) | The Fighter Collection

  • STATUS: Airworthy
  • LOCATION: Duxford
  • OWNER: The Fighter Collection
  • ROLE: Fighter
  • BUILT: 1945
  • LENGTH:  33 ft 4 in\10.16 m
  • WINGSPAN:  41 ft 0 in\12.50 m
  • ENGINE: 1 x Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8
  • MAXIMUM SPEED:  417mph\670 kph
  • RANGE:  1015 miles\1,633km
  • ARMAMENT: Six Browning M2 .50 Caliber Machine Guns; 2,000 lbs of bombs or rockets under the wings

Goodyear Corsair FG-1D G-FGID was built under license by the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation at their facility in Akron, Ohio and delivered to the US Navy with Bureau Number (BuNo) 88297 on April 11, 1945. In May 1945 she was dispatched to Guam where she served with Fleet Air Wing 2 in the Pacific until December of the same year when she returned to the US.

From the middle of 1946 to October 1949 Corsair FG-1D G-FGID was assigned to the US Naval Air Reserve and stationed at numerous Naval Air Stations including Minneapolis, Memphis and Columbus before being put into storage at Lichfield Park, Arizona.

In March 1955 she was stuck of charge and in January 1959 she was sold as scrap to ALU-MET Smelters, but before she was melted down she was bought by stunt pilot Frank Tallman who restored the Corsair and registered her as N9154Z.

Frank flew with her from Orange County Airport, California until she was sold to Rosen Novak Auto Company, Omaha, New England on February 18 1966. She was weathered, but still in the colours of Columbus Naval Air Reserve, her last unit with the United States Navy Reserve.

In May 29, 1968, she was again sold at auction to Johan M. Larsen, Minneapolis, Minnesota who owned her until 1972. She was then at the Minnesota Aircraft Museum, Minneapolis until 1975 when she was sold to Louis E. Antonacci, Hampshire, Illinois in 1983 where she was registered as N8297.

In 1986 she was acquired by the Fighter Collection based at Duxford and was painted in the colours of VF-17 “Jolly Rogers” before being painted in the colours of a British Fleet Air Arm aircraft, KD345 of 1850 Squadron during December 1945, when they were embarked on HMS Vengeance of the British Pacific Fleet. Corsair FG-1D G-FGID is an extremely original example of the type as she has never been restored and has the distinction of being one of the few still flying with fabric wings.

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