WWII Corsair Cockpit Interior

[Harlan (Deceased)]

CINDERS started an interesting thread about WWII Aircraft and I didn't want to hijack it any more than I already had, so I started a different thread to show some photos I had taken. The WWII Corsair cockpit was discussed and I remembered that I had taken several detailed photos of the inside of the CAF's Corsair cockpit several years ago on a cold rainy Sunday at the Dallas CAF hangar. I never used the photos for anything and I thought some here might enjoy viewing them.

I finally found the photos I had taken that I had stored on an old external Hard Drive. I just uploaded them to photobucket and reduced them way down in size so as not to make them take as long to download on some slower computers, but still show some detail. The CAF Corsair's cockpit is the most complete and original WWII vintage Corsair cockpit in existence today. I hope some will enjoy them.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[CINDERS]

Way cool, what a spartan seat, love the intentional spins forbidden sign and the view over the nose, really great pics I mean if you blew a fuse there ain't no auto pilot for the plane to carry on while you change it or a reflector sight bulb. Appreciated

[Harlan (Deceased)]

I'm happy I had a place to finally display them to people who can appreciate them. I saw a few other photo collections of CAF items I've taken while looking for these photos I might show soon that I've never shown anywhere else before. I was the editor of the Dallas newsletter for 8 years and I was always taking photos for future use, but never had the room in the newsletter to use a lot of them.... With our format here on Milsurps.com it's easy to display them for folks.

The seat bucket is a typical WWII American fighter seat. Parachutes were hung under the pilot's rear end so it fit under them as a cushion in that bucket. The CAF Corsair pilots actually wear WWII style parachutes while doing demo flights at air shows.

Regards,
~ Harlan

PS, Cinders.... The warning sign that really cracked me up was the sign saying not to fold up the wings in flight! The military can come up with some pretty silly warning signs even today!

[Seaspriter]

The warning sign that really cracked me up was the sign saying not to fold up the wings in flight!

Image some poor pilot returning at night, shot up, maybe a loss of blood, with a plane on the edge of extinction. It's awful easy, in battle conditions, to get mixed up with all the knobs and levers, especially in a Corsair that was very difficult to land on a carrier deck because the cockpit was located so far aft of the nose. I'll bet the sign was affixed because one or more pilots, perhaps in the state of shock, pulled the wrong lever.

[Bob Womack]

Here's the local one, by the way:



Bob

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Here's the local one, by the way:

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...8corsair-1.jpg

Bob

THANKS BOB! I have always loved the early US Navy tri-color the most of all! The CAF's Corsair was painted in that livery for some time.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Image some poor pilot returning at night, shot up, maybe a loss of blood, with a plane on the edge of extinction. It's awful easy, in battle conditions, to get mixed up with all the knobs and levers, especially in a Corsair that was very difficult to land on a carrier deck because the cockpit was located so far aft of the nose. I'll bet the sign was affixed because one or more pilots, perhaps in the state of shock, pulled the wrong lever.

The Corsair was almost seen as a failure as a ship-born aircraft because that massive engine with long nose was so difficult to line up for landing on the deck and to be able to see the arrestor cables so many crash landed because they couldn't easily judge where the arrestor gear were located (Little room for error in WWII era carriers!) As such, many Corsairs were at first mostly used at land based islands and flown a lot by the US Navy and Marines from land only. Many early Corsairs were given to the Royal Navy because of this (perceived) shortcoming. The British quickly devised a steep overhead approach landing method with full flaps where they came in high and banked sharply in a circular overhead approach method so they could line up with the center of the deck while banking sharply just before heading to the arrestor cables... After their success, the pilots of the Royal Navy trained the US Navy how to land the Corsair on ships! After that, the full potential of the Corsair was put to use!

[Flying10uk]

Does the red "rising sun" sticker on the instrument panel indicate a "kill" to the name of the pilot/aircraft or does it signify something else? British practice was to put such motifs on the engine cowlings of single engine fighters etc and on the forward fuselage area of larger multi engine aircraft, often just forward of the cockpit. With bomber aircraft a Swastika indicated a downed enemy aircraft and a black bomb motif a successful bombing op.. A larger red bomb motif indicated a successful raid on Berlin, the most heavily defended city in continental Europe, and, slightly amusingly, an ice cream cone a successful raid on an Italian target. I believe that from the second half of the war, after victory in North Africa, the RAF often flew on to a North African airfield to refuel and rearm after a raid on an Italian target.

[CINDERS]

FA-18 cockpit for comparison "What switch was that one you said not to press?"

[CINDERS]

Yes I saw that as well and a bit of mirth crept in imagining the sun being blotted out as the wings folded up whilst happily flying along "Pappy" Boyington is another good read in "Baa Baa Black Sheep" from memory I think he survived being strafed in the water after being shot down I think a round hit his ankle, he then survived bein a prisoner of the Japanese. I think also he did end up in Japan as a prisoner after some terrible times on the islands a good read. I have Preddy's P-51 Top Ace book to go into next having just brought a copy author signed memorial foundation one.