In the years between 1941 and 1945, Goodyear Aerospace produced 4,008 carrier-based fighter-bombers - the FG-1 and FG-2 Navy Corsairs. Early air battles had shown the need for a fighter airplane that could fly and climb faster, higher and farther, and that could strike harder and more frequently than anything that had been built before. Goodyear built such a plane, the FG-1. It had a top speed of 309 miles per hour at sea level which increased to 390 miles per hour at 24,700 feet. After takeoff it could climb at a rate of 2,860 feet per minute to a maximum altitude of 33,150 feet. With a normal load, it had a range of 947 miles, flying at 5,500 feet. Near the end of the war, the Navy asked Goodyear Aerospace to build a totally new and higher performance airplane, but one that looked like a Corsair -- the F2G-2. It could fly about 100 miles per hour faster, go about 100 miles farther, climb to 30,000 in four minutes less time and climb 2,000 feet higher than its predecessor. However, before the Navy could spring its surprise on the Japanese, the Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war. Only 17 of the advanced models were produced before Goodyear ended production forever.
