First a deadly crash at Reno last year killed spectators and threatened the viability of the event future post crash. Now this awful tragedy. I suppose the obvious question to ponder is whether these were isolated incidents, or are some of these piston warbirds becoming too failure prone to provide an acceptable degree of safety? How many more "expert pilots, crack air racers," will die trying to go faster just to win a race or lop a loop or entertain a crowd? Those public gatherings seem so small, when I imagine the pain his family feels today?
It is salient to recall that these WW-2 hot rods were built in an era where ergonomics were decades away, where the inherent assumption was that they'll either be shot down, or wrecked in a takeoff/landing accident, after a statistical average number of hours. They were not built to last for decades, the way Boeings, Cessnas or Bombardiers were. They were expected to be used up during or shortly after the hostilities ended. Whenever I hear one of them fly by, its Merlin growling, I cannot help but think of all the brave men who fought and died in them, the genuine heros of aerial combat.
My heart goes out to his family, who now must go it alone without their leader, their irreplaceable north star. My God bless and keep him. Take him now to your glory, where his pain no longer troubles his soul. Lord, please give him wings to fly again.
Douglas M
Surrey, British Columbia
This airplane was originally sold by Walter Soplata with the proviso that it never be flown. Admittedly it was just a hulk, but he sold it to a quasi-museum--somewhere in Ohio, I think--that planned to restore it completely but indeed did promise to never fly it. When the "museum" failed and in turn sold it to Odegaard, apparently all bets were off. So now it's flown, it's gone, and only one Goodyear FG-1D Corsair remains. (Incidentally, they were never named Super Corsairs. That's a popular fiction.) That one will continue to fly until it too inevitably crashes. Does anyone care?