The O3U Corsair was the first new aircraft produced at the East Hartford plant, and the first complete aircraft to be tested “full-scale” in a wind tunnel at Langley Field.  It also was the first float aircraft to be equipped for the cast-type recovery system.  This recovery system required the aircraft to taxi in the “slick” made for them by having the ship execute a tight 90-degree turn.  The plane would land and “taxi hell-bent” for a rope sled towed by the ship from the aircraft boom.  The plane’s main float had a hook or toe under the nose and the job of the pilot was to engage the rope sled with this hook at 12 knots.  It was a bit hairy and rough on the aircraft as the pilots described it.  Once the hook was engaged, the pilot or the gunner, if he had one, would attach a hook lowered to the aircraft by the ship to a sling on the aircraft, and it was hoisted aboard.  In rough seas the “hook man” or pilot often fell overboard into the ocean when attempting to attach the hook to the sling.  This technique continued throughout World War II when OS2U Kingfishers and other types of aircraft scouted for the fleets in the Pacific.