1945 Goodyear F2G-2D Corsair Race #74

The F2G is a rare variant of the famed Corsair fighter plane designed for even higher performance than the original, though the plane's top speed was sacrificed in favor of an optimal rate of climb.  The F2Gs were designed to have been deployed from aircraft carriers primarily to protect U.S. warships from kamikaze attacks, so a rapid rate of climbing was a necessity. Just fourteen F2Gs (4 prototypes and 10 production aircraft) emerged from the Goodyear plant in Akron before the war ended in August 1945 and none of these saw combat.   After the war, surplus military fighters such as the Army Air Corp's P-51 Mustang, P-39 Aircobra, and P-38 Lightning, dominated the post-war National Air Races, but Corsairs, one of the most advanced fighters of the war, were not yet declared surplus by the Navy in 1946.  Pilot Cook Cleland, a former Navy carrier pilot and Clevelander, persuaded the Navy to sell him an FG-1 Corsair (the Goodyear designation for the regular F4U Corsair) to fly in the 1946 race.  Cleland finished sixth in a ten-plane field, but returned the next year with a veritable squadron of three of the hot F2G fighters. This particular blue and white F2G Super Corsair won the 1947 Thompson Trophy.  Flown by Cook Cleland, this plane outclassed the Thompson field in 1947 and won the race in record time.  Cleland¹s teammate, fellow carrier pilot, and area resident, Dick Becker, finished second in another one of Cleveland¹s F2G Super Corsairs.  Cleland won the Thompson Trophy race again in 1949 in another Super Corsair, while Becker flew this plane in the 1948 and 1949 National Air Races.  Following the 1949 Thompson Trophy Race, in which it suffered engine damage, this Super Corsair eluded the scrap heap.  It rested in a Northeast Ohio field, stored there a local aircraft collector who purchased it from Cook Cleland in 1953.  In 1997, recognizing this Corsair as one of the most important participants of the Cleveland National Air Races, the Western Reserve Historical Society bought it.  The plane is currently under restoration by noted Corsair specialist Bob Odegaard, who won a national award for the restoration of Cleland's 1949 Thompson Trophy-winning Super Corsair.

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