A quiet Saturday at Massey Aerodrome

Last weekend, my dad and I visited the Massey Air Museum to see what might be happening on a hot, humid Saturday afternoon in the middle of nowhere on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Being dopey from the heat, I forgot my camera, but took this shot with my cellphone.


"Flying is hours and hours of boredom sprinkled with a few seconds of sheer terror." - Maj. Gregory (Pappy) Boyington

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair is widely considered the most capable of all carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War Two. It's distinctive "bent" wings were designed to keep the landing gear short and robust for carrier landings and give clearance for the enormous 13' 4" diameter propeller required to pull her to over 400 MPH - the first American fighter to do so.

It’s performance was considered equal to many other fighters like the Mustang but its short range kept it either carrier-based or land-based in the South Pacific war close to the action. The Corsair continued to be operated by the USN and the Marines after the war and saw considerable action during the Korean War.

Maj. Gregory (Pappy) Boyington (1912-88) Marine Corps aviator was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. In World War II, Boyington was a fighter pilot with the American Volunteer Group (AVG) (the famous ”Flying Tigers”) in air combat over Burma and China (1942), and with Marine Fighter Squadron 214, (the legendary ”Black Sheep” 1943-44).

Boyington got the nickname "Pappy" because, being just over 30 years old, he was ten years older than many of his pilots.

For three months in 1943-44 he led Marine Fighting Squadron #214, the so-called "Black Sheep Squadron," in the Solomon Islands. During that time the squadron was credited with 97 confirmed kills of enemy aircraft. In January 1944 Boyington was shot down and captured by the Japanese and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.

He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.

Boyington's autobiography, titled Baa Baa Black Sheep, was a bestseller in 1958. In the 1970s a television series by the same name ran for two seasons on the NBC network, with actor Robert Conrad playing Boyington.

The plane in the picture is actually a full-scale fiberglass model built to be a prop at an eatery in Newark, Delaware named the "94th Aero Squadron Restaurant" which has gone out of business.

Corsair #29 belonged to Top Navy Corsair Ace Ira Kepford (16 confirmed victories), but this plane is painted to represent a later F4U-1D that served onboard the USS Intrepid (now a floating museum in New York City) during the invasion of Okinawa, April 1945. The white vertical tail stripe being the identifier for the planes operating off the USS Intrepid.