The Second FG-1A Corsair, Part One

By Rodney Williams

“THE SECOND FG-1A CORSAIR”
Text & Photos by: Rodney J. Williams

PART ONE

I have built several Corsair models kits over the past three decades. In early 2003 I bought one of Trumpeters new 1:32 scale F4U-4 plastic model kits as I wanted an “Experimental FG-1A Corsair” in my collection.

Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, (G.A.C.) of Akron, Ohio/USA was building Corsair fighter planes for the U.S. Navy and during WWII they took two of their Corsairs off of the assembly line and converted them to the FG-1A. Numbers “091 & 092” were the first Corsairs that had what they called: “Tear-Drop Canopy.” As time went by the name was changed to a “bubble-top” canopy.

In April, 1987 I received a list of B.U. Numbers from G.A.C. via my late friend Jim Butler. The list stated that these 2 aircraft were listed in a “class” of XF2G-1s with B.U. Nos of 14091 and 14092. The type of aircraft was designated as FG-1As. The description of these two birds were classified as follows: “Type-A - 360/degree teardrop/bubble canopy; the canopy had no fin tip; the power was a 2800 P/W engine; attached to the engine was a 3 blade Hamilton-Standard prop; there was no auxiliary rudder”.

G.A.C. employees cut down the aft section of the fuselage and added a pre-built “tear-drop” (bubble) canopy. They used a canopy from the British built Hawker Typhoon. The Typhoon canopy did not mate up very good with the Corsairs windscreen. They had to build a larger windscreen in front of the original w/screen.

Look real close at the rear left side’s 45 degree angle photo of “091” and you can see a white frame wrapped around the Corsairs original windscreen. G.A.C. converted 2 of these experimental aircraft and for some reason these design changes did not go into production.

We assume that when Pratt & Whitney came out with their 28-cylinder “corncob” engine, the Navy and Goodyear re-designed the Corsair and the F2G was born.

CONSTRUCTION

My construction data consisted of one left side view drawing of the “FG-1A”, and a very small left side view magazine photo of “091”. I had another small 45 degree oblique angle looking down on “092”. That’s it! Recently I obtained two large digital black and white photo images of “091” via Jim Sullivan.

With no technical data I Just built the cockpit right out of the box then added Waldron instrument dials, seat belt and harness buckles. The cockpit was painted with Tamiya XF-4 “Yellow-Green” and X-18 Semi Gloss Black on the instrument panel and side consoles. Other colors were also use in the pit.

I used some of my “polyester” 1/16" wide ribbon that is made by “Offray” for my straps. I bought several colors of this type of ribbon back in 1986 at a local crafts store when I live in San Jose, CA/USA.

The kits tail was next in line for the building process, which went A-OK. For some reason Trumpeter made the tail wheel assembly so that it would fold up into the fuselage. This was a good idea as after the fuselage was glued together the modeler could fold the tail wheel up into the fuselage and be able to work on the fuselage without breaking off the wheel assembly. One photo shows the wheel retracted while the other one shows it in static/landing position.

I have but one photo of the kits engine, which is built, painted and installed onto the firewall. Another photo will show a revision to the fuselage opening for the 3 exhausts stacks on each side. The stacks were made out of 1/32” inside diameter aluminum tubing.

I show the kits cowling flaps next to my copy of G.A.C.’s Corsair factory (F4U-1A) drawing and it appeared that the flaps were a tad too long, so I cut all of them down to match my drawing. With the above three items finished I closed up the fuselage and glue it together.

My next project was revising the 3 doors that fit onto the wheel well opening. For some “goofy” reason Trumpeter really screwed up on the shape of the front doors.

Enclosed are real photos of the front of the Corsair showing the shape of the front door. All Corsairs were the same. I had made spare doors, landing gear struts and the “tire/rim” combo back in 1995 as I knew I was going to build more 1:32 scale Corsairs one day. The bottom front section of the kit’s wing part was changed to fit my doors.