The 45 minutes that explained everything – A German test pilot analyzes the captured F4U Corsair
Video from the channel KriegsVisionen about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:39. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
The video covers the German evaluation of a captured Vought F4U-1A Corsair and the roughly 45-minute test flight carried out by test pilot Hans-Werner Lerche in August 1944.
Historical background
On 18 July 1944, a Royal Navy Corsair suffered an engine failure during a reconnaissance flight near Bodø, in occupied Norway. The pilot made an emergency landing in a field and tried to destroy the radio and cockpit, but German troops arrived first. Göring ordered the aircraft to be evaluated. Lerche was 27 and had flown more than 60 aircraft types, 25 of them captured Allied machines. The tests took place at the Rechlin test center.
Key facts
Lerche praised the cockpit, which he found tidy and easy to read, and the power of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, rated at around 2,000 hp. On the ground, taxiing had to be done in a zigzag because the nose blocked forward vision. At low speed the ailerons were heavy, and below 150 knots the stall was abrupt, with the left wing dropping. In a dive, above 500 knots, the controls stiffened. The aircraft excelled in climb and vertical maneuvers: it was designed for energy combat, not tight turns. Lerche wrote a 14-page report. The video credits the Corsair with a kill ratio of about 11 to 1, mainly in the Pacific, and notes its use in Korea. In April 1945, Lerche fled west and surrendered to American forces.