F4U Corsair in World War II: Rejected by the U.S. Navy, Feared by Japan's Zero Pilots

Video from the channel War Machines about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 32:33. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary on the Vought F4U Corsair focused on its initial paradox: it was the fastest fighter in the US Navy, yet for a time it was not allowed to operate from carriers. It traces its design, its combat debut with the Marines in the Solomons, the VMF-214 squadron and the fix that finally brought it aboard.

In 1938 the Bureau of Aeronautics asked for the fastest carrier fighter ever built. Engineer Rex Beisel, of Chance Vought, started by picking the most powerful engine available, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, an 18-cylinder, 2,000 hp unit, and built around it the most compact possible airframe, with a propeller over 13 feet across. To avoid lengthening the landing gear, the wing was bent downward: thus the inverted gull wing was born. The Navy contracted the XF4U-1 prototype in June 1938; the mock-up was approved in February 1939, and on 29 May 1940 pilot Lyman Bullard flew it in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In level flight it exceeded 400 mph, something no American fighter had achieved before. In June 1941 an order for 584 F4U-1s arrived.

In autumn 1942, Sam Porter made four landings on the escort carrier USS Sangamon, in Chesapeake Bay: the long nose blocked his view of the deck and the signal officer, and the overly stiff shock struts made the aircraft bounce over the wires. In early 1943 the Navy sent production to land-based Marine squadrons and left carriers to the F6F Hellcat. On 13 February 1943 VMF-124 took off from Guadalcanal on an escort mission to Bougainville, in the Corsair's combat debut. Pilots learned to avoid close dogfights against the A6M Zero and to attack in dives from altitude.

VMF-214, the Black Sheep, was reorganized in September 1943 at Espiritu Santo under Gregory Boyington's command and operated from Munda and Vella Lavella against Kahili and Rabaul. It claimed 23 kills and 11 probables in its first two weeks and 94 over two combat tours; the video cautions that the kill ratios of up to 11 to 1 often cited for the Corsair were likely lower. On 3 January 1944 Boyington scored his 28th victory and was shot down; his wingman, George Ashman, died, and Boyington spent about 20 months as a prisoner. Navy pilots called the aircraft "Ensign Eliminator" for its deck-landing accidents. The shock struts were stiffened, a bubble canopy was fitted, the seat was raised 8 inches and a stall strip was added to one wing; the Royal Navy contributed a continuous-turn approach inherited from the Seafire, and by late 1944 the Corsair was cleared to operate from carriers. Production ended in 1952 with close to 13,000 units built. Rex Beisel rose to vice president of United Aircraft in 1949 and died in Sarasota on 26 January 1972, at age 78.