Here's a story from my area about a guy restoring a Corsair:
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-corsair-0103.artjan03,0,5099420.storyCHESTER - A 3,000-pound engine made with 14,000 parts sits in the center of a hangar at Chester Airport. A dilapidated cockpit lies in a corner. A 10-foot tail section stands high on a shelf.
The hangar is full of thousands of parts belonging to 10 F4U-4 Corsairs, the renowned fighter planes from World War II. After nearly two decades of collecting plane parts and manufacturing new ones, Craig McBurney thinks he will realize his dream of restoring a Corsair to flight. The only problem: The project is at the stage where it needs serious funding. As in at least $1 million over the next three years. During a recession.
It's a lot of money during a bad economic time, McBurney acknowledges, but he argues that it would be for a good cause. The project is helping promote the state's history and its place in the world, while also promoting airplane restoration technology, educating students in manufacturing and design, and garnering business for small, local companies.
"We've got the expertise. Now we just need an infusion of capital," McBurney said. "We're trying to find a sponsor here in the state of Connecticut that will help us finance this over the next couple of years to allow us to stay in the state."
A Childhood Passion
In 1938, when the U.S. Navy was looking for a plane that was light, small and fast, the local aerospace industry had an answer. Vought-Sikorsky (later called Chance Vought) created an innovative design built around the most powerful engine at the time, a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp. The Corsair was known for its bent wings, record-breaking speed and elegance in the air. More than 12,000 Corsairs were built between 1940 and 1952. They were made famous by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps fliers in the Pacific during World War II.
McBurney, 47, has been in love with the Corsair since he was a child in East Haven. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at 18, became a gunner and got his private pilot's license soon afterward. When he left the Air Force, he began working for air museums, hoping to fly a Corsair, but also to learn to restore and maintain planes. After many years of traveling the country doing air shows, however, he still hadn't been able to fly a Corsair.
McBurney took matters into his own hands, literally, turning his passion into a decadeslong mission to restore the plane. He has been collecting Corsair parts since 1991, using as much as $500,000 of his own money, he estimates. He moved from his adopted home in Florida back to Connecticut in 2000 and started putting together the engine in the Pratt & Whitney museum in East Hartford. He moved to the Chester Airport full time in 2003. McBurney helped get legislation passed in 2005 deeming the Corsair the state aircraft. In addition to a hangar at Chester Airport, McBurney has a warehouse in East Haddam and two in Arizona, near where he went to school through the Air Force.
McBurney said he wanted to move the project from Florida to Connecticut "to try and tie in the history of the state of Connecticut, how much Connecticut has contributed to the history in the country and the world, for that matter. ... It made sense to move the Corsair back here."
If a major sponsor doesn't pop up, then Connecticut Corsair, as the group of a dozen volunteers working on the project is called, could use many smaller sponsors, said Stephen Young, McBurney's business partner.
Young, a former submarine officer stationed at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton, said the project appeals to pilots and people, like him, who like finely tuned machines and historic vehicles.
"It's a very famous airplane," Young said. "It has a lot of appeal on a lot of levels."
So far, the engine is completed and the main beam, also known as the main spar an important part of the framework of the wing section is almost finished. The fuselage and wing parts are being made or rehabilitated with the help of local businesses. When McBurney gets the money, he will send the parts to companies in Idaho and North Dakota to assemble. While the project uses parts from 10 planes, it is being modeled after one in particular, the 97330, for which he has parts and vintage photos in flight.
Training For Students
In addition to the efforts of volunteers, much of the work is being done by local companies who are trading their services for networking opportunities and the experience of working on a Corsair.
One is Bolton Works. Owner Mark Bliek is helping create three-dimensional images of the plane's parts that will be used to create virtual models and then to manufacture new parts.
"What I learned from this is meeting up with the right companies will allow you to do things which you really thought were not possible before," Bliek said. "I think what Craig does is just bring those companies together."
When the plane is finished, McBurney wants to keep it based in Connecticut, but travel with it to display and fly at air shows.
The project already is getting attention around the world. McBurney and his team of volunteers built a 7-foot model for the world-famous Paris Air Show in June, which they attended as part of the state Department of Economic and Community Development's booth. The model drew many spectators.
In Connecticut, students have received hands-on training in the worlds of design and manufacturing by interning on the project. McBurney said he'd like to start an internship and scholarship program that will provide even more of an education for interested students.
McBurney has been dazzled by the plane since he was a boy, and he knows there are many more out there like him.
"I can't even tell you how many people look at me and I swear their mouths will drop," McBurney said of when he mentions Connecticut Corsair. "I wait about three seconds and then they'll say, 'That's my favorite airplane.'"
To see more photos of the plane and diagram of its assembly, visit www.courant.com/corsair. To learn more about Connecticut Corsair, visit www.connecticut corsair.com.
Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant
