Corsair Photogrammetry Model (Point Loma — 120 fsw)

Background

As part of my “lemonade” week, we were with Lora on the Marissa looking at some targets pretty far south of Point Loma and needed a second dive at a reasonable depth. I had dove the Corsair in that area a while ago and thought it would make a good target for a photogrammetry model. It would also allow me to practice building a model with two sections of a wreck separated by sand.

Done!

Tyler and Lauren gave me a 10 minute head-start on the dive to start building the model without anybody else in the water. I got down and the visibility was pretty good. I started working on the engine and then moved to the fuselage, making sure to take enough pictures of shell, rocks, and other things in the sand in hopes of “stitching together” the two sections. I then photographed the starboard side of the fuselage, over the middle, and then the port wing. I went back to the engine on a different “path” as a backup.

I repeated that process a couple times and ended up taking 770 photos and then built the model. It was waaay more photos than I needed. When I used the “Reduce Overlap” function in Metashape, I think it got rid of at least half the photos. Better safe than sorry!

Dive Highlights & Photos

As mentioned, the visibility was pretty good. I wish I had taken some wide angle photos in the beginning before settling in to take all the detailed photos for the model. I’m still building my “standard process” for documenting wrecks.

I hand’t noticed in on the dive, but Tyler mentioned a torpedo ray that was buried in the sand in front of the engine. There was also a cool scorpion fish that was sitting on top of the fuselage and didn’t move the whole time (until the open circuit folks came along)!

One thing that I noticed for the first time is that the port wing seems to be “folded back” on itself. I say “seems to be” because I’m not 100% sure. There is an interesting piece of the airplane on “top” of the wing just at the rear of the fuselage section and it has an interesting semi-circle which I thought was the end of the wing “folded back” but the more I look at it, I get convinced that it is NOT the end of the wing. Maybe somebody else can identify it. I’ve included a schematic / cutaway of the Corsair as reference.

Below are a few photo highlights of the dive. Note that the water always seems to be very “green” in that area and so it is hard to get a good, accurate color balance.

Starboard side of the front of the fuselage (note the really nice colors of coral growth)
The famous Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp Engine
Note the torpedo ray to the left of the engine
Can you see the scorpion fish?!?
Close up of the scorpion fish
The tire inside the wing on the port side
Wiring harness on the starboard side wing (not sure why it is there)
The odd round shaped object on the port side I thought was the end of the wing “folded over”

Photogrammetry Model

I’ve included some screen captures of the model along with some notations and a link to the online model at Sketchfab.

Model Overview
Model Overview – Profile View
Engine Close Up
Engine Close Up with Cylinder Heads
Fuselage section (looking from the engine)
Fuselage (looking towards the engine)

Here is a link to the on-line photogrammetry model:

Pt Loma Corsair Model

Below is a reference schematic for the Corsair.

Leave a Reply