Mark Sheppard documents the recent recovery from the Great Lakes of an ultra rare early Birdcage canopy Vought Corsair and recounts the history of this particular model. We start back during the war, on another routine training day. But things didn’t go to plan… .
At 1600 on Saturday 12 June, 1943, USS Wolverine was headed into wind at standard speed prior to flight operations commencing at 17.06pm. At the same time Ensign Carl Harold Johnson USNR took off from NAS Glenview in F4U-1 Corsair Bu.No.02465. Over the previous month, Ens. Johnson had been flying and practicing in the F4U-1 and had undertaken a number of Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) flights. This entailed Johnson undertaking his landing on a rectangle painted out on the airfield. Now it was time for qualification.
It is unclear whether this was his first attempt at landing the F4U-1 on USS Wolverine, as nothing is recorded in the logbook. What is known is that the F4U-1 lived up to one of its nicknames – the ‘Ensign Eliminator’, as recorded in the accident report:
“Pilot made a normal approach but lost sight of the signal officer and did not see the cut signal and decided to take a wave off, but the plane had settled as he applied throttle, the arresting hook engaged number six wire, breaking it, then the hook caught number seven wire pulling the hook assembly out of the plane allowing the plane to leave the deck on the port side and plunge into the water. Plane remained afloat long enough to allow the pilot to get clear”.
“Aircraft and engine lost in Lake Michigan. Not recovered to date. Accident – Percentage each cause. 50% judgment and 50% technique.”
The ship log of USS Wolverine also has a paragraph: “17.25 F-21 crashed over port beam into water. Pilot Ensign C H Johnson recovered by crash boat sustaining only superficial cuts. Plane sank into 220ft of water. Marker buoy dropped.”
To be fair to Ensign Johnson, the F4U-1 was not really ready for carrier operations. There were issues with visibility, approach technique, torque-driven snap rolls at low speeds, and oleo-caused bounces – all to the extent that the US Navy did not endorse it for carrier operations until April 1944 when most of these issues had been sorted out. It seems a bit unclear, due to the above issues, exactly why the Corsair was being used for training.
Ensign Johnson was back in the cockpit four days later and qualified in North American SNJ-4C (Bu.No. 05621), completing his eight carrier landings and take-offs. He then moved to Hawaii and further flying, in F6F-3 Hellcats, with Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 32 before being posted to operational unit VF-10 ‘Grim Reapers’. On 25 November 1943, Thanksgiving Day, Ensign Johnson was one of two Hellcats flying over Maui, Hawaii, when he was involved in a mid air collision. Ensign Johnson was killed, although the other pilot is thought to have landed his damaged aircraft safely. Ensign Carl Harold ‘Harry’ Johnson was interred at the ‘Punchbowl’, the National Memorial Cemetery of Pacific on 10 Jan 1949 – one of the first.
Public-private lift
The Corsair was discovered in the early 1990’s after Al Olsen and Taras Lyssenko of A&T Recoveries researched all of the ship’s logs relating to USS Sable and USS Wolverine – the two training carriers converted from ships on Lake Michigan. The F4U-1 was located 30 miles out and nose down in the mud at a depth of 240 feet (73 metres). From the crash it was clear the rear fuselage had split from the rest of the airframe but was still connected by the control cables.
At this time the airframe could be seen to be in good condition, but in the intervening years the Great Lakes have suffered from the infestation of non-indigenous Zebra and Quagga mussels. These mussels had most probably been accidentally introduced by a ship flushing out its ballast tanks. Since then, the airframe has become covered in these mussels and they were starting to cause damage to these sunken aircraft.
A&T Recovery have so far recovered thirty-one US Navy aircraft for the National Museum of Naval Aviation (NMNA) in association with the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) program and the US Navy – who still lay claim to all of their aircraft. As with all of the recoveries, no US taxpayers’ money has been involved. Either groups or individuals (via the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation) have financed these recoveries, and in some cases the restorations.
The Corsair’s recovery was made possible through a donation from 76 year-old Chuck Greenhill, army veteran, pilot and warbird collector. With all the finance and paperwork in place, at the end of October 2010, A&T headed out to the crash site and recovered the tail unit and brought it back to Waukegan. On 2 November the main airframe was recovered with relative ease, with only the tyres being left behind – the alloy wheel hubs having dissolved. The Corsair was brought up from 240 feet on airbags and slowly towed back to Waukegan Harbour.
On 8 November, Chuck Greenhill, other dignitaries, press and onlookers, assembled at Larsen Marina, Waukegan, as the F4U-1 was slowly lifted a few inches at a time to allow the water to drain. As soon as the F4U-1 was clear over the marina wall, she was set down on a large piece of tarpaulin. Timber blocks were added to the undercarriage locks to ensure they did not fold as well as a few under the remains of the rear fuselage. Even before it had stopped draining, a stepladder was put up against the cockpit, and Chuck Greenhill stood in the cockpit – in white trousers; possibly not the best colour!
After the press and dignitaries had left, it was time for A&T to start the dis-assembly. It was decided the best way to transport it was to remove the engine and break the fuselage on a construction joint just behind the cockpit. Although all of the steel bolts had a crust of corrosion covering them, this was easily knocked off and with a few squirts of penetrating oil, the spanners and screwdrivers loosened nearly all the bolts and Dzus fasteners.
A number of interesting items were discovered immediately. The outer wing panels were finished in doped linen and the ailerons were also made with timber ribs, plywood and doped linen covering. From the missing linen and the removed access panels, it was clear that everywhere had been completed in the ‘salmon’ chromate primer used by Vought during the construction of the F4U-1. Additionally the cockpit had been over sprayed with bronze green.
On removing the gun covers, it was discovered the F4U-1 was still carrying its full complement of .50cal machine guns and ammunition feeds, although it was without ammunition. To get to the construction joint behind the cockpit, the seat and armour plate had to be removed, followed by the radio and battery. Then it was possible to access the ring of bolts joining the two sections together.
The Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8 proved just as straightforward after the panels had been removed. Hoses and cooler pipes were unclamped and the engine mounts were unbolted. By the end of the day the engine was off and on the ground. Again, the salmon primer seemed to have been applied to every component.
By Tuesday morning the disassembly had been completed, and the F4U-1 was on its way to her new home down at NMNA, Pensacola, Florida. Here the F4U-1 will be restored back to her former glory; the only complete and original F4U-1 ‘Birdcage’ Corsair.
It is possible that this F4U-1 will be restored in US Marine colours, as four Marine units operated the F4U-1 during the Pacific island hopping period during 1943/44. A couple of US Navy units flew the -1 but not in combat. The Corsair type only became a carrier qualified US Navy plane in the spring of 1944 after all of the issues had been resolved by the introduction of the F4U-1A.
Vought F4U-1 ‘Birdcage’ Corsair BuNo02465
This Vought F4U-1 Corsair was completed on 18 February 1943 at Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft, Stratford, Connecticut, itself a division of United Aircraft Corporation. It was completed under contract 82611 and given the manufacturing number 3095 and Bureau Number (Bu.No.) 02465. It was part of the initial Vought contract of F4U-1’s in the range 02153 to 02736 and was therefore the 312th out of 584 examples constructed, including one model converted to become a XF4U-3 example. Goodyear and Brewster built further examples.
The F4U-1 ‘Birdcage’ Corsair was completed with an eighteen cylinder Pratt and Whitney R-2800-8 Double Wasp radial, driving a 13ft 4in three bladed Hamilton Standard propeller. Armament consisted of six (three per wing) Colt-Browning M2 .50cal machine guns.
Colours
The factory-finished camouflage consisted of a two-tone scheme of non-specular Blue Grey to upper surfaces and non-specular Light Grey to under surfaces. The outer lower surfaces were painted non-specular Blue Grey to alleviate the light grey lower surfaces whilst the wings were folded up on board the carrier. The national insignia consisted of the simple white field with blue star that was applied to both sides of fuselage and to both upper and lower wings. The fin had NAVY and 02465 painted on in black with the rudder stating F4U-1.
On 26 March 1943 it was accepted by the US Navy and issued to New York a day later. On 29 March. Bu.No.02465 was issued to Naval Air Station (NAS) Glenview, Illinois for the Carrier Qualification Training Unit (CQTU) and was marked up as F-21 in white. In June it was issued to ‘Jax’, known to be Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Florida, but was never received – as on 12 June it was lost in Lake Michigan. On 28 July it was ‘STRICKEN’ from the records by NAS San Diego.
Thanks must go to Taras Lyssenko and all the team at A&T Recoveries along with Carl Johnson’s sister Evelyn Simeone and nephew Peter Simeone for all their help.