Warbirds in Review: Chance Vought F4U-4 Corsair “Korean War Hero”

Video from the channel Air2Air about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 58:51. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

A session from the Warbirds in Review series recorded at Oshkosh. Host Ed Maloney interviews Jim Tobul next to his Vought F4U-4 Corsair "Korean War Hero" and walks around the aircraft with him. It opens with an introductory piece on the model and this particular airframe. The conversation covers the aircraft's history and that of the Tobul family, the aerobatic routine Jim flies at airshows, and the aircraft's technical details, ending with questions from the audience.

Tobul explains that the inverted gull wing was adopted to shorten the landing gear required by the large engine-and-propeller combination. In his view, the wing neither improves nor worsens performance. The engine is a Pratt & Whitney R-2800, normally rated at around 2,100 hp; his produces around 2,600. He raced it at Reno in 2014, finishing fourth at over 300 mph. Because of engine torque, takeoff is flown at half power until past about 150 knots. Applying full power suddenly during a bolter on a carrier could flip the aircraft over.

He shows the single-wing-panel feature that equalizes the stall with everything extended, the result of test flying by test pilot Boone Guyton. He also points out the fabric-covered control surfaces, the wooden ailerons with about 22 pounds of lead balance weight, and the trim tabs that lighten the controls. He cites a top speed of 410 knots. The aircraft has two oil coolers that can be isolated from the cockpit, 50° flaps, and a four-blade propeller about 13 feet 10 inches across, versus the three-blade unit on the F4U-1 and FG-1D. The main tank, 234 gallons, sits ahead of the cockpit and gives about 500 nautical miles of range. For flight planning he figures fuel burn at 100 gallons per hour; at long-range cruise it drops to about 85. In Korea the armament was six .50 caliber machine guns with about 2,400 rounds, a 150-gallon drop tank, a 500-pound bomb or a Tiny Tim rocket, and four rails per wing for 5-inch HVAR rockets. The characteristic whistle comes from the gun ports and the radiator intakes. The dark blue paint is not original; the squadron's yellow was matched using paint from a 1973 Corvette.

The XF4U-1 prototype first flew in May 1940 and in October topped 400 mph, the first single-engine fighter to do so. The Corsair entered service in 1942 and in Korea was used mainly for close air support. This particular aircraft dates from 1945. Its records place it aboard the USS Valley Forge, with a reserve squadron from the Akron-Canton area, aboard the USS Boxer, and aboard the USS Oriskany. It then went to Honduras and fought in the Football War against El Salvador. It returned to the United States in 1977, and Joe Tobul bought it as a project in 1981. The restoration took about ten years, with help from veterans and Smithsonian drawings. Its first flight in civilian hands was on December 8, 1991, and it has flown airshows since 1992. Joe died in 2002 from an engine failure while flying to an airshow in South Carolina, and his son Jim rebuilt the aircraft. Jim also runs the Navy Legacy Flight program, which requires qualifying at NAS Lemoore. According to him, there are a little over thirty airworthy Corsairs.