Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
Thank you Huub, Mark, SpaceWeevil, and Malibu very much for your compliments! Mark, that is excellent, and I hope your son likes it!
Corsair "Kathleen" Repaint (W/Options)
- Thread starter Bomber_12th
- Start date
Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
Airpower Unlimited is known for their extensive detailing work and attention to authenticity in Corsair restorations. Some of the 'highlights' of the real restored aircraft which this repaint specifically depicts, include:
- Functional dive brakes (which of course is the main gear, which deploys and acts as dive brakes (the tailwheel remains retracted))
- Functional underwing pylons and drop tanks
- Original Corsair engine, never installed on any other airplane - supercharger change from -8W to -51 configuration
- Original fighter oil slinger on engine nose case aft of propeller hub
- Functional wing fold system
- Fabric-covered outboard wing panels and control surfaces (some older restorations tended to replace the fabric sections on the wing with aluminum, such as on the Planes of Fame Corsair)
- Functional tail hook system
- Wooden tail hook alignment strips installed in tail cone
- Original manufacturer data plates installed throughout the aircraft
- Nomenclature ink stamps used throughout the aircraft
- Inspection stamps by manufacturer and inspectors recreated as found on plane prior to restoration
- Unmodified instrument panel with original instruments done in multicolored faces
- Functional fluorescent cockpit lighting system
- Original leather seat back cushion - Kapok filled for floatation
- Original pilot's headrest authentically filled with hog's hair
- Original type stowage bag installed in tailcone
- Functional pilot's relief tube
- Complete armor plate package behind pilot's seat
- Original and functioning pilot oxygen system
- Dual 24-volt battery system
- Original WWII radio equipment complete with early fabric covered wire
- Functional formation light system
- Functional LSO lighting system when tail hook is lowered
- Working Mk.8 gun sight and bullet proof windscreen (the same gun sight fitted to the AF Corsair model, but the model is lacking the bullet proof windscreen which the gun sight was meant to reflect off of)
- Replica .50-cal machine guns with full compliment of ammo with primers
- Operational gun firing solenoids and fully detailed gun bays
- Functional 16-mm gun camera with color cartridge
- Early double-braced style canopy
- Brewster bomb rack with 1000 lb. USN Mk.XXII depth bomb (there is only one original Brewster bomb rack in existence, with a private collector who was unwilling to sell, so an exact copy was made utilizing the original for plans/dimensions)
- Original style prop decals - "East Hartford" Hamilton Standard
- Final assembly inspection dots applied (all of the white dots you see on access panels over the outside of the aircraft)
Modern additions for preservation:
- Onboard engine pre-oil system
- Electric oil shut off valve
- Standby electric hydraulic pump system
- High efficiency P2V-7 oil filter with magnetic chip and bypass cockpit indication system
- Chip light in power section
- Two Becker COM transceivers and a Garmin transponder housed in a removable tray/shelf fitted below the instrument panel (navigation is handled via a handheld GPS, usually suction-cupped onto the top of the instrument panel)
The engine that Frank Arrufat received with the project, an early P&W R-2800-8W, had only 50-hrs total time prior to its overhaul! For safety and practicality reasons the engine's original two-stage supercharger was replaced with a single-stage two-speed supercharger from a -51 model. Usually any modifications like this are done so that there is enough room in the engine accessory bay to fit a pre-oiler and add an extra hydraulic pump. There is mention in the same magazine article that a lot of this information comes from, that when John Lane was flying the aircraft from Idaho to Wisconsin for Oshkosh, he established cruise at an altitude of 15,500 feet, running in high blower with cruise settings, and the aircraft registered about 320 kts.
- Functional dive brakes (which of course is the main gear, which deploys and acts as dive brakes (the tailwheel remains retracted))
- Functional underwing pylons and drop tanks
- Original Corsair engine, never installed on any other airplane - supercharger change from -8W to -51 configuration
- Original fighter oil slinger on engine nose case aft of propeller hub
- Functional wing fold system
- Fabric-covered outboard wing panels and control surfaces (some older restorations tended to replace the fabric sections on the wing with aluminum, such as on the Planes of Fame Corsair)
- Functional tail hook system
- Wooden tail hook alignment strips installed in tail cone
- Original manufacturer data plates installed throughout the aircraft
- Nomenclature ink stamps used throughout the aircraft
- Inspection stamps by manufacturer and inspectors recreated as found on plane prior to restoration
- Unmodified instrument panel with original instruments done in multicolored faces
- Functional fluorescent cockpit lighting system
- Original leather seat back cushion - Kapok filled for floatation
- Original pilot's headrest authentically filled with hog's hair
- Original type stowage bag installed in tailcone
- Functional pilot's relief tube
- Complete armor plate package behind pilot's seat
- Original and functioning pilot oxygen system
- Dual 24-volt battery system
- Original WWII radio equipment complete with early fabric covered wire
- Functional formation light system
- Functional LSO lighting system when tail hook is lowered
- Working Mk.8 gun sight and bullet proof windscreen (the same gun sight fitted to the AF Corsair model, but the model is lacking the bullet proof windscreen which the gun sight was meant to reflect off of)
- Replica .50-cal machine guns with full compliment of ammo with primers
- Operational gun firing solenoids and fully detailed gun bays
- Functional 16-mm gun camera with color cartridge
- Early double-braced style canopy
- Brewster bomb rack with 1000 lb. USN Mk.XXII depth bomb (there is only one original Brewster bomb rack in existence, with a private collector who was unwilling to sell, so an exact copy was made utilizing the original for plans/dimensions)
- Original style prop decals - "East Hartford" Hamilton Standard
- Final assembly inspection dots applied (all of the white dots you see on access panels over the outside of the aircraft)
Modern additions for preservation:
- Onboard engine pre-oil system
- Electric oil shut off valve
- Standby electric hydraulic pump system
- High efficiency P2V-7 oil filter with magnetic chip and bypass cockpit indication system
- Chip light in power section
- Two Becker COM transceivers and a Garmin transponder housed in a removable tray/shelf fitted below the instrument panel (navigation is handled via a handheld GPS, usually suction-cupped onto the top of the instrument panel)
The engine that Frank Arrufat received with the project, an early P&W R-2800-8W, had only 50-hrs total time prior to its overhaul! For safety and practicality reasons the engine's original two-stage supercharger was replaced with a single-stage two-speed supercharger from a -51 model. Usually any modifications like this are done so that there is enough room in the engine accessory bay to fit a pre-oiler and add an extra hydraulic pump. There is mention in the same magazine article that a lot of this information comes from, that when John Lane was flying the aircraft from Idaho to Wisconsin for Oshkosh, he established cruise at an altitude of 15,500 feet, running in high blower with cruise settings, and the aircraft registered about 320 kts.
Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
The aircraft also has a smoke system installed, as the St. Barths videos illustrate well. If you go into your Aircraft.cfg file and find the [SMOKESYSTEM] section, you can add this to provide the same smoke capability, with it originating out of the starboard-side stacks like on the real aircraft:
[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0=2.57, 1.37, -2.6, fx_smoke_w
[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0=2.57, 1.37, -2.6, fx_smoke_w
Bomber_12th
SOH-CM-2025
Thank you Mike, and everyone else for taking the time to post to this thread, I appreciate it!
I didn't mean to remove the couple of screenshots that are now missing - I was trying to do some cleaning up of my Photobucket account and ended up deleting those by accident. While rummaging around my Photobucket albums, however, I remembered having found and re-posted these photos of Lindbergh and Corsairs before, and thought them appropriate to post here considering part of the markings on the restored aircraft depicted (name and kill markings on right-hand side bellow the canopy rail), honors him and his service for and with Corsairs in the Pacific:
I didn't mean to remove the couple of screenshots that are now missing - I was trying to do some cleaning up of my Photobucket account and ended up deleting those by accident. While rummaging around my Photobucket albums, however, I remembered having found and re-posted these photos of Lindbergh and Corsairs before, and thought them appropriate to post here considering part of the markings on the restored aircraft depicted (name and kill markings on right-hand side bellow the canopy rail), honors him and his service for and with Corsairs in the Pacific:
