68 | FLIGHTPATH[All images, unless otherwise noted, by Frank Mormillo]
Today, a total of about 45
Chance Vought F4U
Corsairs are believed to still
be privately-owned in the
United States. Frank B.
Mormillo introduces us to
one, the much travelled
F4U-4B, a rare Korean War
combat veteran Corsair,
until recently, owned and
flown by Doug Matthews.
A Flying Tribute
C
urrently based at Ramona, California,
Doug Mathew’s Corsair NX240CF was
originally delivered to the U.S. Navy as
a F4U-4B, Bureau Number 97359 in
March 1946, just missing W.W.II. Later in the
Korean War it flew more than 300 combat
hours with VF-44 ‘Hornets’ Fighter Squad-
ron. After US military service the fighter was
to be one of those sold by Robert Bean to the
Fuerza Aérea Hondureña (FAH, or Hondu-
ras Air Force), registered as N5213V. Howev-
er, it did not go south like the others and was
retained by Bean in 1959 and stored at Tolle-
son, Arizona for fifteen years. Refurbished at
Tucson it was sold to Tom Friedkin who oper-
ated it from his Cinema Air Jet Center at
Carlsbad, California, as N97353 flying the
airplane in the ‘Black Sheep Squadron’ tele-
vision series (called the ‘Baa Baa Black
Sheep’ in its first season) from 1976 through- Registered to Cinema Air of Houston,
Texas in 1980, as N240CA, it passed to Ray
Hanna’s Old Flying Machine Company based
at Duxford, in the UK in 1988, and cam-
paigned extensively at the UK airshows of the
era, in RNZAF colours as NZ5628. In March
1992, the Corsair was brought back to the
United States by Norm Lewis of Louisville,
Kentucky and finished in VF-44 colours and
markings. Max Chapman then bought the
Corsair in 1998, and had it finished in VMFT-
20 Naval Air Reserve colours and markings,
earning the Reserve Grand Champion, Post-
World War II Award at the 2000 Oshkosh
EAA AirVenture. After an abortive sale to an
Australian collector in 2005, and a brief rela-
tionship with the Vintage Wings of Canada
collection, it was finally obtained by Doug
Matthews for his Classic Fighters of America
collection in 2007.
Doug began to race his Corsair as a stock
competitor at the Reno National Champion-
ship Air Races in 2009 and, in 2011, decided
to refurbish the fighter as a tribute to U.S.
Navy VF-32 Korean War Medal of Honor re-
cipient Lieutenant (Jg) Thomas J. Hudner, Jr.
During a mission near the Chosin Reser-
voir on December 4, 1950, while operating