DEFINING HISTORY

Air Classics, Aug 2006 by Hulett, George

Remarkable book on one aircraft

The Time Capsule Fighter - Corsair KD431 by David Morris (Sutton Publishing www.suttonpublishing.co.uk) is the tale of a single aircraft. Restoring and preserving a vintage aircraft to its original condition can take thousands of hours of painstaking labor and detective work. This was the task that faced the author and the staff and the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeoviliton, England. For many years it was believed that the museum's Corsair, serial KD431, had been flown hack to England from Ceylon at the end of WWII. This appeared to explain how the Corsair came to exist in the museum as the last surviving museum example of such an aircraft in Britain. Rut was KD431 really the aircraft that had made such an epic journey? Was the fighter, concealed beneath a thin film of paint, in tact a substantially more original WWII Corsair than many realized? These questions sparked a remarkable and possibly unique restoration project.

In 2000, the museum embarked on a ground-breaking project to restore the Corsair to its original condition. Instead of stripping the plane back to bare metal and then repainting using modern paints, Curator of Aircraft David Morris and his dedicated team opted for a different approach: This was to remove, inch-by-inch, the paint layer applied in 1963, exposing - and preserving - the original paint finish that remained from 1944.

A huge task lay ahead to understand the aircraft and unravel the myths and truths surrounding KD431. Thousands of hours of painstaking detail work were required to achieve what initially looked like an impossible goal. But the skill and patience of all those concerned was eventually rewarded with the unveiling of what is probably the last truly original Corsair left in existence - one of the very few WWII aircraft displayed in such original condition.

This is the story of KD431, the men who flew her in the 1940s, and the men who restored her in the 21st century to original condition. Very well produced with great photography - both current and vintage - the book takes the reader step-by-step as the true "colors" of this Corsair are revealed. This is a unique volume and is a must for the student of WWII aircraft.