F4U Corsair: The LEGEND of the Pacific 【 ʜɪs 】

Video from the channel Razek about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 22:08. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

A Spanish-language documentary on the history of the Vought F4U Corsair: its origin before the Second World War, the design problems that cost lives, the evolution of its variants and its second life in the Korean War.

In 1938 the United States was still out of the war, but Germany's expansion in Europe and Japan's in Asia made the conflict foreseeable, and the US Navy knew that fighters like the F3F and the F2A Buffalo had become outdated. In February 1938 it called for proposals for a fast carrier-based fighter, with long range and folding wings. At Chance Vought, chief engineer Rex Beisel led a team that included Frank Albright, Paul Baker and James Shoemaker. They presented two prototypes: the V-166A, with the Pratt & Whitney R-1830, and the V-166B, with the 18-cylinder R-2800 Double Wasp. So that the large three-blade Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller, over 4 m across, would not touch the ground without resorting to a very long landing gear, the wing was bent downward: thus the inverted-gull wing was born.

The XF4U-1 flew on 29 May 1940 and was the first single-engine fighter to exceed 400 mph. In the F4U-1 the cockpit was moved back to fit a large fuel tank ahead of it, which worsened visibility. VMF-124 brought twelve aircraft to Henderson Field (Guadalcanal) on 12 February 1943 and entered combat on 14 February; two Corsairs were lost that day, one of them flown by Lieutenant Gordon Lyon Jr., who collided with a Zero. Pilots then adopted the diving attack and quick-exit tactic known as "boom and zoom". Because of poor visibility and the engine's torque during powered operations, the Navy used it mainly from land bases and did not operate it fully from carriers until January 1945. In November 1943, 23 Corsairs of VF-17 refueled aboard the Essex and the Bunker Hill. In December 1943, No. 1830 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm began operating from HMS Illustrious: four of its 14 aircraft were lost in accidents and the commanding officer, Brian Fiddes, was lost at sea. On 11 March 1944, aboard the same ship, Alan Vickers, George McCarty and Ivor Griffins died in the fire of a Corsair that crashed on deck. Notable variants include the F4U-1A, with better visibility; the F4U-1D, with hardpoints for bombs and rockets; the F4U-1C, with four 20 mm cannon; the F4U-2, a radar-equipped night fighter; and the F4U-4, with the R-2800-18W, from which came the F4U-4C, later renamed F4U-4B. In the Korean War, which began in June 1950, the F4U-4B provided close support with squadrons VF-113 and VF-114 from the USS Philippine Sea, alongside F9F Panther jets.