While the basement projects connected restoration directly with visitors at the main Museum, the Vought Corsair received from the U.S. Navy in 2008 demonstrated what could be accomplished at Gillespie Field with a severely damaged aircraft. The aircraft was an F4U-7 built for the French Navy in 1953. After later display aboard the USS Alabama, it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Floodwater and prolonged exposure left the airframe corroded and structurally compromised. The Navy transferred it to San Diego for disposition, and Museum volunteers spent approximately three years restoring it at Gillespie Field before the completed aircraft was moved to the main site for display.

The Museum's Corsair on display alongside the USS Alabama prior to Hurricane Katrina.

The completed aircraft was presented as an AU-1 in the markings associated with Jerry Coleman, the San Diego Padres broadcaster and Marine aviator who had flown the type during the Korean War. That choice did not reproduce the airframe’s own French service configuration. Instead, it used a surviving Corsair to interpret a locally meaningful story connecting military service, aviation, and San Diego public life. The project therefore illustrates the interpretive power and responsibility carried by restoration. Paint, markings, and configuration do more than complete an aircraft visually. They determine which history the object is asked to tell.

Jerry Coleman speaking at the Corsair's dedication.

Unveiled in 2011 with Coleman present, the Corsair entered the Balboa Park galleries beneath an SBD Dauntless, representing the two aircraft types he flew during two wars. The installation transformed a hurricane-damaged airframe into a focal point for discussing combat aviation and one veteran’s life. It also made the restoration team’s work part of the Museum’s public identity, even though most of that labor had occurred away from the finished gallery.