How a Genius Engine Fix Turned the F4U Corsair Into a Beast

Video from the channel The Last Frontline about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 44:02. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary on how the Vought F4U Corsair went from being rejected for carrier operations to becoming one of the most effective fighters in the Pacific. The throughline is the water-methanol injection system (ADI) that engineer Frank J. Walker developed at Pratt & Whitney, in East Hartford, Connecticut, for the R-2800 Double Wasp engine. Its effect in combat is told through Marine Corps pilots such as Kenneth Walsh, Robert M. Hanson and Gregory Boyington.

The Navy commissioned the prototype from Vought in June 1938 with very demanding requirements for speed, stall speed and range. The inverted gull wing, devised by Rex Beisel's team, allowed the landing gear to be shortened without the 13 ft 4 in three-blade Hamilton Standard propeller touching the ground. The XF4U-1 flew on 29 May 1940 and that October exceeded 400 mph in level flight. However, poor visibility, abrupt left-wing stalling and gear bounce meant that, after trials aboard USS Sangamon in autumn 1942, it was declared unfit for carriers, and the aircraft passed to the Marines. VMF-124 arrived at Guadalcanal on 12 February 1943, and two days later suffered the so-called St. Valentine's Day Massacre over Kahili. From then on, pilots settled on a doctrine based on altitude and speed that avoided close turning dogfights with the Zero.

With ADI, a mixture of water and methanol in roughly equal parts, the R-2800 went from 2,000 to 2,250 hp in emergency power for about five minutes. The F4U-4's R-2800-18W reached 2,450 hp, and that model attained 446 mph at 26,200 ft. On 30 August 1943 Walsh downed four Zeros in a single engagement and received the Medal of Honor. Hanson, of VMF-215, scored 20 victories between 1 and 17 November 1943 and 25 in total before his death on 3 February 1944. Boyington, leading VMF-214 "Black Sheep", matched Rickenbacker's record of 26 victories on 3 January 1944 and was captured that same day. According to the video, the Corsairs scored 2,140 aerial victories against 189 losses, and the aircraft was cleared for carrier operations in April 1944. It returned to combat in Korea, where Captain Jesse Folmar downed a MiG-15 in September 1952, and production ended on 31 January 1953 with more than 12,500 units built.