Tallman FG-1D Corsair BuNo 92433 (N3440G)

FG-1D BuNo 92433 was on of four Goodyear-built Corsairs associated with Tallmantz Aviation. It came to Frank Tallman in 1959 and left the Tallmantz collection in 1969.

USN Service

FG-1D BuNo 92433 was built at the Goodyear aircraft factory in Akron, Ohio, and delivered to the Navy on July 11, 1945. The record card indicates it went to NAS San Diego for a short period, than assigned to an aircraft replacement pool at the Samar Airfield in the Philippines through the balance of 1946. It was then assigned to a unit at Pearl Harbor in early 1947. By July 1947, it was assigned to various Naval Air Reserve Training Units (NARTU) for the balance of its USN service. There were a number of units it was assigned to, though predominately it was NAS Jacksonville, Florida, NAS Dallas, Texas NAS Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the last unit of assignment, NAS New York, New York. In October 1954, it was withdrawn for service and sent to NAF Litchfield Park, Arizona, for storage.

It was stricken from the Navy inventory on January 7, 1957, with 2,307 hours of flight time recorded. It was then made available for disposal. 

BuNo 92433 sold as surplus to Alu-Met Smelters

BuNo 92433 was grouped with 38 other surplus FG-1Ds and made available as a sales lot  for scrap in early 1959. The bid offering noted that the overall condition of the aircraft was “poor, parts missing.” This lot was sold to Alu-Met Smelters of Long Beach, CA, on January 23, 1959, for $18,941.13, or $485.67 per aircraft. Of the 39 FG-1Ds in the lot, three ended up going to Frank Tallman (BuNos 92433, 88365, 88297), two went to Ed Maloney’s The Air Museum (BuNos 92132 and 92436), and two to other civil owners (BuNos 92468 and 92509). The other 32 FG-1Ds presumably ended up being scrapped.

Frank Tallman purchases BuNo 92433 in May 1959

On May 7, 1959, Frank Tallman purchased BuNo 92433 from Alu-Met Smelters. Tallman applied for FAA registration on May 17, and N3440G was assigned.

On July 2, 1959, Tallman filed an application for an experimental airworthiness certificate which was subsequently issued. That application shows 2,307:15 hours of flight time on the aircraft. It is probable that by July 1959, Tallman had already ferried the airplane from Litchfield Park to his base at Flabob Airport near Riverside, California.

At some subsequent point but prior to the spring of 1961, the airplane was repainted in a generic USN scheme with with dark blue upper surfaces and grey under surfaces. Not quite matching the wartime USN scheme, post-1947 insignia was added. No other markings, save the three-inch high civil registration number under the horizontal stabilizer, were applied.

Tallman’s account in his 1973 book Flying the Old Planes is an interesting read, both for what is included and for what is not. There is a lengthy account about how he came to Litchfield Park and bought three FG-1Ds from the scrap dealer (known to be Alu-Net Smelters), which is true but they were not purchased together. As per the FAA aircraft files, we know he purchased BuNo 92433 (N3440G) on May 7, 1959. We also know he purchased BuNo 89297 (N9153Z) and BuNo 88365 (N9154Z) on January 9, 1960, fully eight months later. To read Tallman’s account, he worked on all three at Litchfield at the same time, but in actuality, N3440G was ferried from Litchfield to Flabob most likely shortly after he purchased it in late May 1959.

This reveals the problem with using Tallman’s account of his history with his airplanes in that book…it is not reliable in the details. No doubt few thought that anyone might actually care in the following decades. As an editorial comment, it is pretty clear that Tallman wrote the text in the book himself…he has an unusual writing style that carries through in all the chapters, i.e. “With a barking cough that dropped the jaws of the mechanics like drawbridges, the R2800 engine enveloped itself in flames like an Indian funeral pyre.”

Still, Tallman’s account of recovering the FG-1D from Litchfield is an interesting read in his book (pages 234-235). And, see the other dedicated pages (coming soon) for the history of his other two FG-1Ds.

There is no indication that Tallman initially put the Corsair to gainful employment while based at Flabob. No evidence of movie or even airshow attendance have yet surfaced. 

The Tortoise and the Hare Air Race in May 1961

However, Tallman did put his Corsair to good use in the late spring and early summer of 1961. N3440G and his Garland Lincoln LF-1 (N12237) conducted a “Tortoise and The Hare” cross-country race from NAS Los Alamitos (near Los Angeles), California, to NAS Pensacola, Florida, to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Naval Aviation. The race, with actor/producer Michael Hinn flying the FG-1D and Tallman flying the Lincoln, was widely followed in regional and national newspapers through the month. 

What is a bit confusing is that the Navy showed the airframe time of BuNo 92433 at retirement in 1954 at 2,307 hours, which matched what Tallman filed in May 1959 with the CAA in his airworthiness application. He showed 2,308 hours in April 1961, barely enough time to ferry the FG-1D from NAF Litchfield Park to Flabob at Riverside. In October 1962, airframe time had increased only to 2,310 hours, which calls into question either the records kept or how a two-way transcontinental flight was accomplished in two hours. Even two years later, in February 1964, the airframe time had only increased to 2,312 hours, suggesting only five hours of added flight time from 1954 to 1964.

Nonetheless, N3440G participated in the “Tortoise and the Hare” race. Both sides of the cowling had markings applied that consisted of a sponsor Conoco Oil Company emblem and “Hottest Brand Going” inscription. Otherwise, the aircraft markings remained unchanged.

Later, after the aircraft was returned to California, the cowling markings were removed and, in the process, the cowling demarcation line between the blue and grey paint was also reapplied differently. 

N3440G to Tallmantz Aviation collection

After Tallman merged his operation with that of Paul Mantz in November 1961, FG-1Ds N3440G, N9153Z and  N9154Z, as well as the rest of the Tallman collection, were  folded into Tallmantz Aviation at Orange County. They joined Paul Mantz’s FG-1D N63382, also at Orange County. Registered ownership of N3440G remained, however, with Frank Tallman.

Thereafter, however, it appears that N3440G sat pretty much in disuse for the next seven years. As per the FAA airworthiness certificate applications, the airplane only added six hours of flight time between 1964 and 1969, and most or all of that was probably before February 14, 1965, when its last airworthiness certificate before 1970 expired. Most likely, it was used for media and exhibition flights for that short period.  There is no indication N3440G was used in any film projects, nor that it made any airshow appearances. 

As an aside, FG-1D N9153Z was sold by Frank Tallman in 1963, and both FG-1Ds N63382 and N9154Z went to Rosen-Novak in February 1966, leaving N3440G as the sole remaining Tallmantz Corsair afterwards.

September 1969 trade to Jr. Burchinal

That only lasted until September 16, 1969, however. On that date, Tallman traded N3440G to Isaac “Jr.” Burchinal of Paris, Texas, for Grumman J2F-6 BuNo 33587 (N67790). Tallman wasn’t flying the FG-1D and he needed the Grumman Duck for use in the upcoming filming of Murphy’s War in Venezuela the following spring.

So, N3440G headed east to Paris, Texas, to join Burchinal’s Flying Tiger Air Museum and, of perhaps of more interest, his warbird flight school. Burchinal added a rudimentary second cockpit to the FG-1D and offered flight instruction in it and the rest of his stable of warbirds that included a P-51, an F8F, and a B-17. All flown from a short unpaved duster 3,000′ duster strip just west of Paris. Just how many takers there were for a bit of dual in the Corsair is undetermined. One report says the second cockpit did have a control stick, rudder pedals, and an engine throttle (just like the back seat of a Van’s RV-8).

Actually, it was Burchinal’s technique to let a student sit in the rear seat and observe him fly a Mustang or a Corsair or a P-38, and then hop out to let the student try it himself. Seemed to work out pretty well as there were no (recorded) direct fatalities or major accidents during his flight training operations.

The best documentation of Burchinal’s warbird school comes from aviation author and photographer Budd Davisson’s four-part series that ran in Air Progress magazine in 1971. For one of those articles, FG-1D N3440G was featured on the cover of the magazine with a nice Budd Davisson photo.

N3440G and Baa Baa Blacksheep TV Series

The warbird school stumbled along for a good number of years, but the economic fortunes of Burchinal’s Corsair, as well as those of a number of other Corsairs and their owners, was greatly boosted by the production of the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep (later, Black Sheep Squadron) that ran from 1976 through 1978, with a total of 34 episodes and one pilot movie (entitled The Flying Misfits). The show starred actor Robert Conrad depicting the famous Pappy Boyington in his many somewhat, okay, greatly fictional exploits as the commander of USMC fighter squadron in the Pacific during World War II.

The show ultimately gathered up to eight Corsairs and a smattering of other period warbirds for the production, mostly shot at the Indian Dunes airfield located in a remote little valley north of Los Angeles. The aircraft, including a Tallmantz B-25 camera ship, were mostly based at Van Nuys Airport. The California coastline and Channel Islands doubled for the south Pacific combat zone. Frank Tallman and Tallmantz Aviation was also involved in the filming, providing expertise, plus a few aircraft and pilots. Though the TV series has achieved a near-cult like following among dedicated warbird/Corsair fans, any less afflicted viewer pretty much viewed it as cheesy and predictable. It was shot down after its second season.

For an in-depth look at the filming of Baa Baa Black Sheep, I’ll happily refer you to this article, Poor Little Lambs: The Corsairs of Baa Baa Blacksheep written by Stephen Chapis that appears in Vintage Aviation News.

Nonetheless, it was a boon to Corsair owners and pilots, so there is that. If you believe the FAA airworthiness certificate applications, N3440G flew 94 hours between March 1976 and September 1978, most of that paid for by the TV production.

It would appear that this was the swansong for this particular Corsair.

N3440G destroyed in a 1979 hangar fire

Things get a bit fuzzy in the aircraft record after the TV filming was completed. However, there is ancillary evidence that Burchinal was subsequently trying to sell his Corsair. Reportedly, it was in the hands of aircraft broker Wayne Williams and kept at the Addison Airport in Texas when a June 2, 1979 hangar fire destroyed FG-1D N3440G. As per newspaper accounts, four other aircraft and the hangar were destroyed in the fire. (Thanks to Chris Brame for the fire details.)

Nothing about the possible ownership transfer (if there was one) to Williams or that it was destroyed in a fire made it into the FAA aircraft file, so the aircraft subsequently remained active on the U.S. civil register. Still it appears the story of FG-1D BuNo 92433 ended in 1979 at that burnt crispy hangar.

Rebirth of N3440G

Not so fast, Gumby. In the world of warbirds, aircraft have a strange way of being resurrected, and such appears to be the case for N3440G.

An objective telling of the story is that a pile of aircraft parts identified as FG-1D BuNo 92471 were imported from El Salvador in the 1970s. This was one of the surviving Corsair airframes operated by the Salvadoran Air Force, officially the Fuerza Aérea de El Salvador (FAS). There is mystery about this specific aircraft and how it got to El Salvador, what it did in El Salvador, and how it got back to the U.S. Still, there was an FG-1D project owned by Harry and Diane Tope being rebuilt at Kalamozoo, Michigan in the 1992-1993 timeframe, that was eventually sold to Ray Dieckman of Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1995, and moved to Chino for completion. Dieckman purchased N3440G, or at least the file for N3440G, from Burchinal on June 15, 1996. The identity of BuNo 92471 was transferred to become BuNo 92433 with the civil registration of N3440G. A nice and tidy way to get the mystery FG-1D airframe legally registered. That’s not to say that some parts of BuNo 92433 did not end up in the restored airframe, because I’m sure some did.  Then, the registration of N3440G was changed to N773RD on December 6, 1996.

BuNo 92433 Now with Mid-American Flight Museum

In any event, BuNo 92433 flew again in May 2000 as a fine example of an FG-1D. It was sold by Dieckman to Claire Aviation of Wilmington, Delaware, on January 18, 2005. Then, on September 29, 2015, N773RD was sold to Scott Glover of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, for his Mid-American Flight Museum. The airplane remains with that collection and kept in airworthy condition. It flies marked as Marine’s Dream.