The Epic Saga of the F4U Corsair

Video from the channel TJ3 History about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 42:04. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

English-language documentary on the full history of the Vought F4U Corsair, from the US Navy's 1938 competition to its retirement after the Korean War. It combines archival footage, newsreels and period press with re-enacted combat scenes. It covers the design, carrier-landing problems, service with the marines and the Royal Navy, close air support and the end of production.

In 1938 the Navy requested a single-engine, single-seat fighter against bombers and set top speed as the main factor. Rex Beisel, Vought's chief engineer, presented the Model 166B. It carried the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, a three-blade Hamilton propeller about 13 feet across, and an inverted gull wing to keep the landing gear short. It won on speed, although the Navy hesitated against Brewster's proposal because of the added weight and wingspan. The XF4U-1 flew in May 1940 and exceeded 400 mph in October. After the Battle of Britain, the armament changed to six .50-caliber machine guns in the wings; to make room for them, the nose was lengthened and the cockpit moved back, which reduced visibility. On carriers it bounced, the left wing stalled first, and the Navy opted for the F6F Hellcat instead. The Corsair then passed to the marines.

VMF-124 arrived at Henderson Field, on Guadalcanal, in February 1943 with little experience on the aircraft. On 14 February, during an escort mission over Bougainville, the Americans lost eight aircraft, two of them Corsairs. Kenneth Walsh promoted tactics based on altitude and speed and became the first Corsair ace. From September 1943, Gregory Boyington's VMF-214 shot down 97 aircraft in 80 days; Boyington was shot down in early 1944 and spent twenty months as a captive. The British devised the curved approach, clipped the wings, raised the seat seven inches, and received more than 2,000 aircraft. The Corsair Mk III built by Brewster had faults in the wing fittings. The US Navy cleared the Corsair for carrier operations in April 1944. It then served as a fighter-bomber, carrying up to 4,000 pounds of ordnance, in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In Korea, Guy Bordelon became an ace flying the F4U. The last unit, number 12,571, marked in 1953 the end of propeller fighters built in the United States. The Corsair fought for the last time in 1969.