F4U-1 CORSAIR
Video from the channel Minutos de Historia Militar about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 7:14. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Technical profile and historical review of the Vought F4U-1 Corsair, an American single-seat carrier-based fighter, from its conception in the late 1930s to its last combat action in 1969.
Historical context
In early 1939 the US fleet urgently needed a powerful, reliable naval fighter. Vought, with its chief engineer Rex Beisel, built the XF4U-1 prototype, which first flew on 29 May 1940 and from which the F4U-1 was derived. The aircraft officially entered service during the Guadalcanal campaign in February 1943, where it proved effective both as an interceptor and as a ground-attack aircraft with HVAR rockets. The Royal Navy embarked it on HMS Victorious to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. New Zealand and France also used it. In 1945 it fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Its last action was the 1969 Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, which both sides had: there were kills of a P-51 Mustang and a dogfight between Corsairs on opposing sides.
Key facts
Inverted gull wings, bubble canopy, Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8W 18-cylinder radial engine with 2,000 hp and a three-blade Hamilton Standard propeller, and six 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings, plus bombs and rockets. Wingspan of 12.5 m, length of 10.2 m, range of 1,630 km and ceiling of 11,250 m. The video covers the F4U-1A and F4U-1D variants, the night-fighter F4U-2, the experimental F2G, and the F4U-4 and F4U-5, which reached 740 km/h and 2,300 hp. According to the video, the Japanese nicknamed it "the whistling death."