The Fuerza Aerea de Chile (FACh) operated a total of 38 Douglas B-26B/Cs from 1954. This FACh B-26B, “846”, was originally 44-35937, and, after a long spell as a gate guardian at El Bosque air base, near Santiago, it was moved in 1997 to Jackson Barracks Military Museum in New Orleans.

Following the completion of the Argentinian Corsairs’ refurbishment by the Aero Corporation at Atlanta’s congested main airport, the beefy fighters were moved to Naval Air Station Atlanta, near Marietta, for test and training flights. Here F4U-5 serial 0387, coded 3-C-14 (formerly BuNo 121850), is prepared for another flight at NAS Atlanta in the early summer of 1957.

Аргентина по программе военной помощи в мае 1956 года получила десять F4U-5/-5N. Самолеты поступили на вооружение морской авиации, и в 1957 году были дополнены 16 F4U-5/-5NL. В партии из 16 истребителей имелись несколько не пригодных к полетам машин, которые использовались на запчасти. Аргентинские Corsair базировались в Пунта-де-Индио и регулярно выполняли полеты с авианосца "Индепенденсия".
One of a rare series of air-to-air colour photographs taken by Argentinian Navy pilot Capitan Hugo Frontroth from his Vought F4U-5 during the ferry flight of 11 Corsairs from the USA to their new home in Argentina during July-August 1957. Corsair 3-C-20 was originally BuNo 121994 in US Navy service

Another of the colour photographs taken by Capt Hugo Frontroth during the ferry flight from the USA to Argentina, this time showing serial 0392, code 3-C-20 (formerly BuNo 121994), with its pair of 150 US gal (567lit) auxiliary fuel tanks clearly visible.

Flying in a much looser formation, the Corsairs push across Central America during the ferry flight in August 1957. The nearest to the camera, 3-C-20, was written off in a deck landing accident aboard carrier ARA Independencia on October 16, 1959. The pilot was unhurt but a crewman was killed after being hit by the propeller.

The COAN Corsairs were later painted in a Dark Sea Blue overall scheme, with white codes and insignia. This F4U-5NL - note the nightfighter radar pod on the starboard outer wing - is serial 0374 (formerly BuNo 124705), initially 3-C-1, but recoded 2-A-201 in 1959 and 3-A-201 the following year.

Initially painted by the Aero Corporation, the batch of F4U-5s was repainted (as seen here) by US Navy personnel at NAS Atlanta, who re-applied the standard COAN scheme of Light Gull Gray uppersurfaces and White undersurfaces, with the national Sol de Mayo insignia in the white section of the blue-white-blue-banded rudder.

Much of the intercontinental ferry flight was flown in surprisingly tight formation, as this snapshot of F4U-5 serial 0391, code 3-C-19, from the cockpit of Capt Frontroth’s Corsair, reveals.

One of the COAN Corsairs taxies past a row of parked US Navy Douglas Skyraiders at NAS Atlanta in the early summer of 1957, before embarking on the epic 11-aircraft ferry flight from Georgia to Argentina via Texas, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador and Peru. Note the anchor insignia on the Corsair’s upper wing surfaces.

Factory-fresh, and with the distinctive dark paint sweep applied on the forward fuselage to mask the extensive staining from the Double Wasp’s exhausts, F4U-5 serial 0394, code 3-C-22 (formerly BuNo 122154), has been fitted with its long-range ferry tanks on the inner wing sections and is parked alongside a US Navy Douglas R4D-8 transport at NAS Atlanta.

The wreckage of F4U-5 code 3-C-15 (formerly BuNo 121864) after it suffered an engine fire on take-off from NAS Atlanta on June 19, 1957. The code was re-allocated to F4U-5N serial 0432, which was delivered in December 1958 and recoded 2-A-215 in 1960, and which was itself written off in a crash after engine failure in May 1964.