This Plane Saved Thousands of Lives: The Story of the F4U Corsair
Video from the channel Archivo Aéreo about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 20:35. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Documentary about the Vought F4U Corsair: its design, its early carrier problems, its technical characteristics, its career in World War II, its operators and its last combat, in 1969.
Historical context
In the late 1930s the US Navy was looking for a carrier fighter faster than any other. Rex Beisel's team at Vought chose the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, an 18-cylinder radial of over 2,000 hp, and solved the problem of the huge propeller with the inverted gull wing. In flight the aircraft proved fast and powerful, but on deck the long nose blocked visibility and the gear bounced, so the Navy deemed it unsuitable for carriers and handed it to the Marine Corps. From airstrips on Pacific islands it faced the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, more agile but fragile, with tactics of altitude, speed and diving attacks; among its pilots Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of the Black Sheep squadron stood out. With technical improvements and new landing techniques, the Navy accepted it aboard carriers in 1944.
Key facts
The video gives a length of 10.1 m, a wingspan of 12.5 m, a height of 4.9 m and a wing area of 29.2 m², with a top speed of 653 km/h, a range of 1,633 km and a ceiling of 11,200 m. It was armed with six 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns and could carry up to 910 kg of bombs or four 127 mm rockets; its self-sealing tank held 872 liters. About 21 variants are mentioned, along with operators such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Argentina, El Salvador and Honduras; the Argentine Navy operated 29 examples from the carrier ARA Independencia between 1956 and 1966. On July 17, 1969, in the Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, Honduran captain Fernando Soto shot down an F-51 Mustang and two Salvadoran FG-1 Corsairs with an F4U-5, in the last combat between piston-engine aircraft. That same aircraft flew until 1982, was declared a national monument and is on display at the Honduran Air Museum.