Got an email from a guy who banks with us, he loves airplanes and sent me this email...I almost fainted with envy. Heres what he sent me:
The only fault I can find is the prop bolts on the Corsair are in backwards. Look at the close up of the prop.
This is absolutely fascinating.
Using small needle nosed pliers, the controls can be moved. All cables and linkages are in place to work the wing control surfaces as well. Young Park has since carved a pilot's face and hands from solid aluminum and built an articulated pilot to sit in the cockpit Remember this as you look at the pics........... All the controls work as designed, by cables, chains, linkages and levers.
All these controls WORK!!!!!........ And that means they work the parts of the aircraft via rods and chains as in the original aircraft!!!! Every single part hand made and fitted.
Machine guns and bullets.........
Detail of three .50 Cal. machine guns and ammo cans. Ammo cans are loaded outside the aircraft and then simply set into place in the wing. Their doors become the top surface of the wing. This allowed for rapid reloading by the ground crew.
Mr. Park generously donated the first (cutaway) Corsair model to the Joe Martin Foundation. It can be seen in person in its display at the Foundation's museum in the Sherline building in Vista, California. A collection of photos showing how the model was built and all the historical data on the Corsair Mr. Park collected to build it has also been donated and is available for viewing. In 2005, Mr. Park also donated the second corsair and it is also now on display in the Foundation's museum.
Inside the left wing you can see the .50 cal ammunition threaded into the three wing guns. Each round is machined in 3 parts ½ brass cartridge with copper bullet and primer and is held together with a small copper feed jacket.
engine exhaust ports....... pic taken during assembly.
Control wires are being threaded around their pulleys underneath the cockpit during construction. Notice the carving marks on the thicker pieces. ( Y. Park photo )
The radiator air intake sits under the fuselage ready for installation. Much of the detail of some of the parts is hidden once it is assembled. ( Y. Park photo )
Each panel is hand formed over a wooden shape. The metal is annealed to the proper softness and then pounded and bent into shape. The plane is made up of many individual panels, and the fits between panels are just about perfect. ( Y. Park photo )
Here we see the panel above in it's final position. Looks easy now, doesn't it? ( Y. Park photo )
The form for the air intake and the final part. As is often the case in machining and model making, fixtures, molds, formers and jigs to make the final parts can take a long time to make and are never seen by the public viewing the finished model. ( Y. Park photo )
