For the F4U fans, new book alert

[Guppy35]

"The Time Capsule Fighter-Corsair KD431", David Morris.

Just came out in the states, has been out in England for a couple months.  Got my copy yesterday and spent much of last night reading it.

It details the work done on the Fleet Air Arm Museum FG-1A KD431.  It had been painted when it got to the Museum in 1963 and it was decided a couple years ago to see if they could remove the repaint and trace the history.  Turns out they had a real time capsule of a Corsair as it had all the factory applied markings etc preserved underneath and they managed to get back to it's 1945 look.  So it's not a restoration so much as an uncovering.  Amazing amounts of detail for modelers or skinners for that matter as to the factory applied markings as well as exact colors etc.

Tons of pictures of the process too.  So if you want a look at a 1945 FG-1A Corsair that is the only FAA Corsair surviving, as well as a Corsair in its original paint as opposed to a restored bird, you'd love this book.

Learned something interesting as well when they showed the outer wing of the Corsair being recovered in fabric.  I had no idea that early Corsairs and all the British Corsairs had fabric covered outer wings.

Anyway, it's proven to be a wonderful book on the Corsair.

[F4UDOA]

Any detail on performance or is it more paint and pictures??

I think there is another F4U book that just got published by "Historic Avaition but my wife threw out my new catalog.

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by F4UDOA
Any detail on performance or is it more paint and pictures??

I think there is another F4U book that just got published by "Historic Avaition but my wife threw out my new catalog.

It is specific to the one aircraft as a 'time capsule" so the goal of the project and the book is to detail how they painstakingly over 4 years worked from prop hub to tail removing the postwar museum 'shoddy' paint job and revealed the factory applied paint as well as markings, stenciling etc.   In essence they brought it back to 1945 as it had never been 'restored' since it went into the museum outside of one coast of poorly applied paint in 1963.  

They found all kinds of interesting bits, including what is believe to be the only existing example of a wartime applied gas patch on the left wing.  That and determining that it was in fact an FG1-A of which only one other example exists at the Marine Museum at Quantico, and how the British exports were actually stamped FG1-B even though it was not really a designation.

The photography is great and it really is like looking back in time but it is not a performance or overall F4U history.