The Super Corsair in Odegaard Aviation’s workshop in December. It is being restored in the markings it wore when flown at Cleveland in 1949 by Dick Becker.

Vought F2G Super Corsair NX5577N, in which Cook Cleland won the 1947 Thompson Trophy race at Cleveland, is approaching the end of restoration to fly at Odegaard Aviation in Kindred, North Dakota. It is hoped that it will be airborne for the first time in 60 years during the spring.

Bob Odegaard began the restoration back in 2000 on behalf of the F2G’s then owner, the Crawford Museum in Cleveland. He says, “We had started a static restoration for them, but after 9/11 the funding got short and we put it in storage. It was later sold to Tom Ungreaurn from Ohio, who hired us to finish it to flying status.” Bob had previously restored F2G N5588N, which won at Cleveland in 1949 (see Race 57, December 1999 Aeroplane). Bob continues, “My sons Bradley and Casey are doing the restoration with some help from me. Ray Anderson at Grangeville, Idaho, has just finished the Pratt & Whitney R-4360, which came out of a Douglas Globemaster, and we are about to install it. We are planning to have it at the Oshkosh show in July, and the Reno races in September.”

In 1949 N5577N achieved a qualification record of 414 m.p.h. for the Thompson, but stripped the prop reduction gear and did not race. In 1950 it was acquired by Walter Soplata, and trucked from Cleveland to his farm in Newbury, Ohio. It sat there under an awning until it was sold on in 1999.