Rare Original Topping Model of Goodyear F2G-1 "Super Corsair"

This may very well be the only sample of this rare Topping Goodyear F2G-1 factory display model. Bill Topping's father worked for Goodyear in Akron and knew the company officers well. Bill was then offered a job in sales with Goodyear where he also began creating factory models for various companies. This F2G-1 may very well have been the model that got him his start producing his factory models. I have a good friend whose late father worked first for Brewster Aeronautical as an engineer on their version of the F4U (F3A) and then he was offered to work for Goodyear on their license built Vought Corsair production (FG-1). He did well so he was then added to the team to create a "hotrod" medium altitude version of the F4U the F2G-1. Many of the upgrades were impressive changes such as a bubble canopy, taller fin, larger prop and a monster motor- the Pratt and Whitney R-4360-4 "Wasp Major" radial engine with a whopping 3,000 horsepower. The airplane would not be so much an interceptor as it would be a ground attack aircraft. Only about a dozen were produced before the war ended. Some ended their days as high-powered racing airplanes in the postwar National Air Races.
This model represents the first of the series and would have been intended as an in-house display model that may have eventually found its way to Pax River (MD) while the full-scale fighter was being tested. It was in the Maryland/Virginia area that this model was located. The new owner has carefully cleaned, repaired and waxed the model to have it appear in 1945 while on display. It has now been established as a family heirloom in honor of his father, one of the WW2 American Aviation "Whizz Kids" of aircraft design.