Origen del Chance Vought F4U Corsair Historia de la Bestia Voladora del Pacífico #gatocuriosotv #f4u

Video from the channel Gato Curioso TV about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 45:17. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Chance Vought F4U Corsair that covers its design, technical features, and combat record from World War II to the 1969 Football War, with notes on its presence in film and literature.

In the 1930s the United States Navy sought a long-range, high-performance carrier fighter to replace the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Rex Buren Beisel, chief engineer at Vought-Sikorsky, proposed a fighter powered by the 1,850-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp. The V-166B proposal was accepted in June 1938, when design of the XF4U-1 prototype began; the mock-up was approved in February 1939 and the first flight took place on May 29, 1940. The inverted gull wing allowed the fitting of a Hamilton Standard propeller of about 4 m with a short main landing gear. The long nose made visibility difficult when landing, and pilots depended on the deck's landing signal officers.

Its baptism of fire came in the Pacific on February 14, 1943, with the first aerial victory credited to Second Lieutenant Kenneth A. Walsh, of the Marines. The VMF-214 squadron, Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington's Black Sheep, was credited with 94 enemy aircraft between August 1943 and January 1944. Boyington scored 28 victories. The Corsair also fought over Rabaul, Bougainville, the Solomons, the Philippine Sea, and Okinawa, and the Japanese nicknamed it the "whistling death."

The 18-cylinder engine reached about 2,380 horsepower in the final versions, range was around 1,617 km, and the basic armament was six .50-caliber Browning M2 machine guns, plus bombs and rockets. The kill ratio in the Pacific was 11 to 1. On May 10, 1945, over Okinawa, Robert Klingman and Kenneth Reusser chased a Kawasaki Ki-45 to 38,000 feet. Reusser damaged it, and Klingman, with his guns frozen, used his propeller to cut off its rudder and stabilizer. He then landed engineless at Kadena, and both received the Navy Cross. About 12,571 units of 16 models were built, from 1940 until the last delivery to France in 1953. In Korea it served as a ground-attack aircraft at Pusan, Inchon, and Chosin. On July 17, 1969, Honduran Captain Fernando Soto Henríquez, flying the F4U-5 FAH-609, shot down a Mustang and two Salvadoran Corsairs in the last combats between propeller-driven fighters. That aircraft is on display at the Honduran Air Museum.