F4U-4 Corsair 62952/316 of VF-53 goes into the barrier of USS Essex on July 23, 1951.

At 6.30 p.m. on February 24, 1945, Lt (jg) Laney of VBF-94, aboard USS Prince William, crashed his Vought F4U-1 Corsair, BuAer No 57093, into the carrier's island and it caught fire. Lt Laney and five of the carrier's crew were injured.

The demise of Lt (jg) Emigholz Jr's F4U-5, 121908/315 of VF-13, on USS Wasp (CV 18), July 15, 1952..

Lt Cdr C. W. Conges of VF75-1 noses Vought F4U Corsair aboard USS Fra Roosevelt (CVB-42), on January 15, 1946.

F4U-4 Corsair 62952/316 of VF-53 goes into the barrier of USS Essex on July 23, 1951.

An anonymous Corsair poised on its spinner aboard USS Coral Sea on August 2, 1950.

F4U-4 81100 of VMF 322 departs USS Sicily (CVE-118) on October 14, 1949

The amazing sequence, taken aboard USS Midway (CVB-41) on July 23, 1951, shows the crash of Cdr George C. Duncan's Grumman F9F-5 Panther, 125228. Miraculously the aircraft's nose broke off at a bulkhead, separating it from the flame - enveloped centre-section and leaving the cockpit virtually intact, as seen in the view at bottom right. In the shot of the rear fuselage hanging from the carrier's side, below, the Panther's Pratt & Whitney J48 engine can be discerned, almost wrenched right out of the airframe.

A Douglas AD-1 Skyraider making a spectacular departure from USS Boxer (CV-21) on October 11, 1947.

A sequence of four pictures tracing Ensign Ross's watery descent from the USS Tarawa of CV-40 in Grumman TBM-5E BuAer No 91556 on December 17, 1948 - not the best way to celebrate the 45th anniversary of powered flight!