pilot had landed in France with engine trouble earlier that year and the plane was brought to the French Aerodrome at Bricy, near Orly. Guyton had arranged a test flight following French racing pilot Michel Detroyat, winner of the Thompson Trophy just three years earlier in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Detroyat experienced mechanical troubles with the Messerschmitt's brakes and plane was damaged upon landing to the extent that Guyton would miss his opportunity. By the time January 1940 arrived with rising tensions in Europe, Nazis threatening France and the pressures of so-called neutrality laws, Vought terminated Guyton's assignment and sent him back to the States. He exited France via Italy, where he boarded the ocean liner , which ran under the American flag and was theoretically safe from German U-boat attacks as it headed through the Strait of Gibraltar. Guyton arrived in New York harbor on January 24, 1940. The Vought years Upon returning to the States, Guyton found himself once again looking for work. Things at Vought were quiet as the new XF4U-1 Corsair prototype was not yet airworthy and the OS2U Kingfisher had yet to roll off the assembly line. With no other options, Guyton accepted an offer from TWA and finally flew for the airline he had passed up three years earlier. Guyton's airline career officially began on March 6, flying mostly DC-3s. But as luck would have it, a job offer would arrive from Vought's Rex Beisel a mere three months later to fill an open position for an experimental test pilot. At the end of May 1940, Guyton left TWA and reported to Vought's chief of flight test, Lyman Bullard, shortly before the Corsair's maiden flight on May 29. On July 9, Guyton would fly XF4U-1 for the first time. During his fifth flight in the plane, on July 11, Guyton was caught in bad weather during high-speed testing and was forced to make an emergency landing on a golf course as fuel ran out. The Corsair skidded into a group of trees and flipped over, but the damage was luckily repairable and only set the program back two months. Subsequently, Bullard was able to demonstrate the XF4U-1 for the Navy on October 1 while also becoming the first single seat production fighter to surpass 400 mph (Bullard actually reached 405 mph). Guyton continued testing the XF4U-1 Corsair as well as various versions of the SB2U