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"Triple Threat"

MustangL2W said:
I was there! Now I may be a "Mustang" guy, but standing there in between 5 Corsair's was really something unique. A real Joy to say the least, and nice to see so many NAVY airplanes represented for a change. The Community sure does lack Hellcat's though and that is too bad. Looks like there is someone in the Backseat of the Cavanaugh bird.
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Yeah, there was someone in the backseat of the Cavanaugh Corsair - a guy which was involved in managing the restoration of the Olympic Flight Museum Corsair (number 115). It usually always surprises people to hear that some of the Corsairs flying today have a backseat in them - obviously not nearly as great a visual experience from that seat as compared to flying in the back of a P-51.

Regarding the Hellcat, for having the best WWII combat record than any other Allied fighter, it seems rather odd that there are so few flying today. There are only five - three are based in Texas (Rod Lewis (ex-TFC), Friedkin family, and Lone Star Flight Museum), one in California (Commemorative Air Force), and one in Washington (Flying Heritage Collection). At least in recent memory, there has never been a Hellcat based on the east coast, but that will change once the Collings Foundation Hellcat is flying (a former radar-equipped example, which has been under restoration at American Aero Services in Florida). Allied Fighters also has a Hellcat project which will be restored to fly. Outside of those, I'm not aware of any others being restored to fly (the Yanks Air Museum has two Hellcats, one completed and one under restoration, and they always advertise their aircraft as airworthy, but they are never flown (save for a select couple) - whether that changes or not in the future remains to be seen).

By comparison, there are about 25 Corsairs flying today with several more under restoration to fly (including the rare Brewster F3A Corsair under restoration in Texas and a Pacific Theatre combat-vet F4U-1 birdcage example under restoration in California). For other USN types, there are about 15 Wildcats, 6 Tigercats, and 32 TBM Avengers flying today. Currently there are 3 SBD Dauntless types flying today, and there is an additional SBD-4 Dauntless which should be flying very soon, having been under restoration for several years (one of the Lake Michigan recoveries from the 90's that the Navy let go of to the civilian market). Currently there is only 1 Helldiver flying (Commemorative AF), as there only has been for decades, but there are two more which are actively under restoration to fly, composing of an SB2C-1A in California and a SB2C-5 in Minnesota.
 
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