F4U Corsair | The best American fighter of World War II?
Video from the channel Hangar 10 about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 17:29. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A documentary about the Vought F4U Corsair: its design, the problems that initially kept it from operating from carriers, and its service in the Second World War, Korea and other conflicts. It includes performance comparisons with Allied and Japanese fighters.
Historical context
In 1938 the US Navy requested a fighter far superior to the Buffalo and the Wildcat. Vought designed it around the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine. To keep the large propeller from touching the ground without lengthening the landing gear, an inverted-gull wing was chosen. The prototype flew in May 1940 and in October reached 651 km/h. Poor visibility, an abrupt left-wing stall and a landing gear that made the aircraft bounce initially kept it away from carriers, so the Marines employed it from bases on the Pacific islands. It arrived at the end of the Guadalcanal campaign and faced the Zero for the first time on 14 February 1943. The F4U-1A variant, with a bubble canopy, and the F4U-1D corrected those flaws. By 1945 it was already operating from carriers against Japan and at Okinawa. The United Kingdom received just over 2,000 and used them in the attack on the Tirpitz.
Key facts
About 12,571 units were built. The F4U-4 reached 718 km/h and had a ceiling of 12,600 m. Robert M. Hanson was its top ace, with 25 victories. In Korea it served as a fighter-bomber and night fighter, and a Corsair was credited with shooting down a MiG-15. France also used it, in Algeria and at Suez, as did Argentina, from the ARA Independencia; one example is preserved in Bahía Blanca. In 1969 the Honduran Fernando Soto Henríquez, flying an F4U-5, shot down two Salvadoran Corsairs and a Mustang.