This month's Name that Plane is a bit easier with a cargo aircraft with a gorilla on the tail. How about some cargo guys submitting entries! Lt. Dan Carbonaro's entry is as follows: The aircraft in this month's Airport Press is the F2G-1D "Super Corsair". The Goodyear F2G "Super" Corsair was a development by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of the FG-1/F4U-1 Corsair design as a special low-altitude version of a fighter equipped with a Pratt & Whitney R-4360 twenty-eight cylinder, four row radial air-cooled engine. Although often cited that the origin of the aircraft was as an interceptor of low-flying Japanese suicide airplanes, its actual beginnings came about in 1939 when the Pratt and Whitney company first proposed its enormous new engine. The F2G lineage was tied to engine design rather than tactical requirements. Using experience from building the fixed-wing FG-1, a version of the folding wing F4U-1 Corsair, in early 1944, Goodyear extensively modified a standard FG-1 airframe, designated the XF2G-1, to take advantage of the 50% increase in takeoff power provided by the R-4360 engine. In addition, an all-round vision bubble-type canopy was installed. In March 1944, Goodyear was awarded a contract to deliver 418 F2G-1 and 10 F2G-2 aircraft. The F2G- 2 version included modifications for carrier operations. Armament provisions included alternative wing-mounted installations for four or six 0.5 inch machine guns and eight 5 inch rockets or two 1,000 or 1,600 lb bombs. The internal fuel capacity was increased greatly over that of the FG-1, and provisions were provided to carry two droppable external tanks. By the end of the war in August 1945, only five F2G-1D aircraft were completed. Testing revealed deficiencies in lateral control and insufficient speed, which were bars to further development of the aircraft. Thus, further production of the fighters was canceled. Only three of the "Super Corsairs" are still in existence: F2G-1, BuNo 88458, (shown in the Airport Press photo) was purchased by Cook Cleland, who went on to finish third in the 1949 Thompson Trophy Race and first in the 1949 Tinnerman Trophy Race. Over time, the plane, registered as NX5588N, went from owner to owner and slowly deteriorated. Finally, in 1996, NX5588N was purchased by Bob Odegaard of North Dakota, and was returned to airworthy condition in 1999. The aircraft is currently on loan to the Fargo Air Museum. Odegaard raced the plane in the Unlimited class at the Reno Air Races from 2006 to 2008 and it was featured in the movie Thunder Over Reno. |
