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Baa Baa Black Sheep
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On Tuesday, September 21, 1976, the pilot episode\u00a0\u201cFlying Misfits\u201d<\/a>\u00a0of the series that became Baa Baa\u00a0Black Sheep<\/a>, premiered on NBC at 9pm. President of Universal Television Frank Price had obtained the rights to legendary World War Two hero\u00a0Gregory \u201cPappy\u201d Boyington<\/a>\u2019s memoirs, and tasked up-and-coming writer Stephen Cannell to write a script for the two-hour pilot action thriller. Test audiences liked what they saw, and with the studio behind it, the first series was commissioned.<\/p>\n Even before it aired, however, the series seemed doomed to failure. Unsure where to place it in the television listings, the series provoked outrage for its storylines and visual content, which appeared to promote bad language, drinking, and womanising in an era that hadn\u2019t yet defined the parameters of acceptable viewing. Its target audience, however, loved it for the unrivalled and dramatic sequences that featured thrilling and dynamic aerial footage of World War Two<\/a> aircraft in action.<\/p>\n F4U-7 Corsair BuNo. 133693 \u201cBlue Max\u201d<\/p>\n As already explained in fact, considering that the warbird movement was still in its adolescence in 1976, it is incredible to note that a total of 44 aircraft was used throughout the entire series. Of these, eight were Corsairs of various models that constituted nearly 66 percent of the world\u2019s airworthy Corsair population at that time.<\/p>\n As told by Stephen Chapis in his book Poor Little Lambs: The Baa Baa Black Sheep Story<\/a>, over the decades, there have been a number of \u201cexperts\u201d who have claimed that Robert Guilford\u2019s (1933-2005) F4U-7 BuNo. 133693 nicknamed \u201cBlue Max\u201d appeared only in the pilot episode and never in any of the series episodes, and that when you see a -7 on-screen it\u2019s John Schafhausen\u2019s aircraft, but that was not the case. Careful examination of period photographs revealed that the -7s were nearly identical, but there was one subtle difference \u2013 the propeller hubs. The hub on \u2018693 was black, and \u2018710 was silver. Once that difference was identified, the author was able to determine that 133693 appeared in a total of 21 episodes \u2013 14 in season one and seven in season two. All of the footage was shot in March and August 1976.<\/p>\n Catastrophic engine failure<\/p>\n Steve Rosenberg was tasked with flying Guilford\u2019s Corsair. It is entirely possible that he and \u2018693 could have continued flying on the series, but after he flew just three filming sorties on August 12, 13, and 19, the television careers of Rosenberg and BLUE MAX were cut short by a catastrophic engine failure. <\/p>\n In 2011, Rosenberg described the flight chat took place on August 19, 1976: \u201cI took off for a short flight out of Van Nuys pulled into a loop and simultaneously noticed a light inside the cockpit and smoke coming down the left side of the fuselage. I rolled the aircraft upright, checked my gauges. The oil pressure was down to 25psi, and the temperature was rising through 128\u00b0C. The prop was freewheeling, but I had no power. Luckily, I was at about 7,000ft, which was enough for me to make a straight-in approach to Van Nuys\u2019 16R. I wheeled it on and coasted off one of the high-speed turn-offs just as the R-2800<\/a> seized.\u201d Although this seems like a dramatic incident, Rosenberg\u2019s logbook entry for this flight simply reads, \u201cVAN NUYS LOCAL 0.6HRS-ENGINE FAILURE.\u201d <\/p>\n The engine change that followed turned into a full-fledged restoration from which the Corsair did not emerge until 1979 \u2013 a year after Black Sheep Squadron<\/a> was canceled.<\/p>\n
![\"Corsair](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/F4U-7-Corsair-Black-Sheep.webp.webp\")
F4U-7\u00a0Corsair\u00a0(BuNo 133693) leading LTV A-7A-4a-CV\u00a0Corsair II\u00a0fighters (BuNo 153168, 153174, 153175) of US Navy Attack Squadron VA-147\u00a0Argonauts\u00a0over Naval Air Station Lemoore, California (USA), on 7 July 1967 before their first deployment to Vietnam aboard the aircraft carrier USS\u00a0Ranger\u00a0(CVA-61).<\/p>\n