Thirteenth Corsair Added to Thunder Over Michigan Lineup!!!

Vintage Wings of Canada's magnificent FG-1D Corsair Bu.92106 has just signed the dotted line to attend the Yankee Air Museum's Thunder Over Michigan Air Show this year, bringing to thirteen the number of bentwing birds attending the event! (photo by Richard Mallory Allnutt)

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Vintage Wings of Canada’s Goodyear-built FG-1D Corsair makes it thirteen, a baker’s dozen of Corsairs which will now be attending the Yankee Air Museum’s Thunder Over Michigan Air Show over the weekend of August 3/4 following news from the air show coordinator, Mike Luther. Could there be more coming? We shall see… but this year’s Thunder Over Michigan show is set to be one of the most memorable aerial events anywhere in some time!

Vintage Wings of Canada’s FG-1D Corsair is marked to represent Royal Navy Corsair Mk.IV KD658 belonging to HMS Formidable’s 1841 Squadron. KD658 is believed to have been the mount of Canadian Robert Hampton Gray on that fateful day, August 9th, 1945, when he pressed home a successful attack off the coast of Japan, sinking the Japanese destroyer Amakusa while his own aircraft was on fire. Sadly for Gray, he did not survive the incident, but for his bravery, he received the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry in the field of battle. (photo by Richard Mallory Allnutt)

If all of the bentwing fighters are able to make the show, it will be the largest gathering of airworthy Corsairs since the early 1960s! It seems hard to believe that we have the prospect of seeing an entire ‘squadron’ of Corsairs on the ramp and in the air over Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan this summer, but that tantalizing prospect is now within reach. Bravo to the Thunder Over Michigan team for all of their efforts on this magnificent endeavor!

The ramp at Willow Run will resemble this scene this August at the Thunder Over Michigan air show. This shot, circa 1943, shows a row of thirteen freshly-constructed FG-1 Corsairs outside the Goodyear Aircraft factory in Akron, Ohio. (photo via Wikipedia)
The list of Corsair’s scheduled to attend is now as follows… FG-1D Bu.67089 – Elenville, LLC FG-1D Bu.88090/NZ5612 – Louis Horschel FG-1D Bu.92106 – Vintage Wings of Canada FG-1D Bu.92468  – Commemorative Air Force – Dixie Wing  FG-1D Bu.92471 – Mid America Flight Museum FG-1D Bu.92508 – Military Aviation Museum F4U-4 Bu.97143 – Jim Tobul F4U-4 Bu.97388 – Wings Of The North F4U-5NL Bu.122179 – Collings Foundation F4U-5NL Bu.121881 – Lone Star Flight Museum F4U-5N Bu.123168 – Fighters & Legends F4U-7 Bu.133710 – John O’Connor F4U-7 Bu.133722 – Erickson Aircraft Collection

For those who love Corsairs, or simply vintage military aviation, you might like to check out the highly detailed article (written by your editor) about the last surviving Brewster-built Corsair in the most recent issue of Warbird Digest below…

 

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