Goodyear Aircraft's wartime fighter line — 4,000+ FG-1 Corsairs in three years
Most pilots know Goodyear from blimps and tires. Fewer know that during World War II, Goodyear Aircraft Corporation in Akron, Ohio built fighters. Specifically: more than 4,000 Corsairs in three variants (FG-1, FG-1A, FG-1D) — license-built from Chance Vought's F4U design and produced between 1942 and 1945. Goodyear's Plant D in Akron stamped, riveted, and rolled out finished bent-wing fighters. The FG-1D variant was used by US Marines in the Pacific and by the British Fleet Air Arm. After the war Goodyear converted to commercial work, and the assembly buildings still stand south of Akron. The MAPS Air Museum on Akron-Canton Airport (KCAK) is restoring an FG-1D (BuNo 76671) whose cockpit spent 60+ years in the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Museum before MAPS rescued it in 2018. The same Akron plant that built airships built fighters. Both legacies live on the same airport.