F4U Corsair: The "Killer" Plane That Destroyed 2,140 Japanese Aircraft | World War II

Video from the channel Bravoure Oubliée about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 40:03. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

A French-language documentary about the Vought F4U Corsair in the Pacific War. It recounts its difficult development, the initial ban on carrier use, its combat debut with the Marines in the Solomon Islands, and its role in wearing down Japanese naval aviation. It closes with its long later career in Korea, Indochina and Central America.

The video opens with the Mitsubishi A6M Zero's dominance in the war's early months over the Brewster Buffalo and the Grumman F4F Wildcat. In February 1938 the US Navy had requested a carrier-based fighter capable of at least 563 km/h. Chance Vought and its chief engineer, Rex Beisel, designed it around the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, an 18-cylinder twin-row radial of about 2,000 hp. The 4 m propeller forced the adoption of the inverted gull wing, which allowed for a short, light landing gear. The XF4U-1 prototype flew on 29 May 1940 and was the first American fighter to exceed 644 km/h in level flight. It had poor forward visibility, a sharp stall and a landing gear that bounced on touchdown. For that reason the Navy reserved it for land-based operations and handed it to the Marine Corps.

VMF-124 received the first combat-ready Corsairs for the South Pacific at Henderson Field (Guadalcanal) in February 1943. The video covers pilots such as Kenneth Walsh (21 victories and the Medal of Honor), Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, commanding VMF-214 from August 1943, and Robert M. Hanson, of VMF-215. It details the tactic of diving to attack and regaining altitude without entering turning fights with the Zero. The Royal Navy operated the Corsair from carriers starting in April 1944. The F4U-1A variant raised the seat and improved the cockpit, and the US Navy authorized it aboard ship in late 1944; the Navy's first Corsair squadron was VF-17 under John T. Blackburn. According to the video, Corsairs flew more than 64,000 sorties and scored more than 2,140 kills, at a ratio of 11 to 1. After 1945 it provided close air support in Korea with the AU-1 and F4U-5 variants. France used it in Indochina. Honduras and El Salvador employed it in the 1969 Football War, the last air combat between piston-engined fighters.