Vought F4U Corsair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair

The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft that saw service
primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon
overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by
Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and
Brewster-built aircraft F3A. From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy
in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were
manufactured, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any
piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–53).

The Corsair was designed as a carrier-based aircraft, but it came to and
retained prominence in its area of greatest deployment: land based use by the
U.S. Marines. Due to logistics issues and initial problems with carrier
landings, the role of the dominant U.S. carrier based fighter aircraft was thus
filled by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, powered by the same Double Wasp engine first
flown on the Corsair's first prototype in 1940. The Corsair also served in the
U.S. Navy. In addition to its use by the U.S. and British, the Corsair was also
used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the French Naval Aviation and other,
smaller, air forces until the 1960s. Some Japanese pilots regarded it as the
most formidable American fighter of World War II, and the U.S. Navy counted an
11:1 kill ratio with the F4U Corsair.

When the Corsair entered service in large numbers with the U.S. Navy in late
1944 and early 1945, it quickly became one of the most capable carrier-based
fighter-bombers of World War II. The Corsair served almost exclusively as a
fighter-bomber throughout the Korean War and during the French colonial wars in
Indochina and Algeria.

In February 1938 the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics published two requests for
proposal for twin-engined and single-engined fighters. For the single-engined
fighter the Navy requested the maximum obtainable speed, and a stalling speed
not higher than 70 miles per hour (110 km/h). A range of 1,000 miles (1,600 km)
was specified. The fighter had to carry four guns, or three with increased
ammunition. Provision had to be made for anti-aircraft bombs to be carried in
the wing. These small bombs would, according to thinking in the 1930s, be
dropped on enemy aircraft formations.

In June 1938, the U.S. Navy signed a contract with Vought for a prototype
bearing the factory designation V-166B, the XF4U-1, BuNo 1443. The Corsair
design team was headed up by Rex Beisel. After mock-up inspection in February
1939, construction of the XF4U-1 powered by an XR-2800-4 prototype of the Pratt
& Whitney Double Wasp twin-row, 18-cylinder radial engine, rated at 1,805 hp
(1,346 kW) went ahead quickly, as the very first airframe ever designed from the
start to have a Double Wasp engine fitted for flight. When the prototype was
completed it had the biggest and most powerful engine, largest propeller and
probably the largest wing on any naval fighter to date. The first flight of the
XF4U-1 was made on 29 May 1940, with Lyman A. Bullard, Jr. at the controls. The
maiden flight proceeded normally until a hurried landing was made when the
elevator trim tabs failed because of flutter.

--- To accommodate a folding wing the designers considered retracting the main
landing gear rearward but, for the chord of wing that was chosen, it was
difficult to make the landing gear struts long enough to provide ground
clearance for the large propeller. Their solution was an inverted gull wing,
which considerably shortened the required length of the main gear legs. The
anhedral of the wing's center-section also permitted the wing and fuselage to
meet at the optimum angle for minimizing drag, without using wing root fairings.
The bent wing, however, was heavier and more difficult to construct, offsetting
these benefits.

Meanwhile, the more docile and simpler-to-build F6F Hellcat had begun entering
service in its intended carrier-based use. The Navy wanted to standardize on one
type of carrier fighter, and the Hellcat, while slower than the Corsair, was
considered simpler to land on a carrier by an inexperienced pilot and proved to
be successful almost immediately after introduction. The Navy's decision to
choose the Hellcat meant that the Corsair was released to the U.S. Marine Corps.
With no initial requirement for carrier landings, the Marine Corps deployed the
Corsair to widespread and devastating effect from land bases.


Role
Carrier-based fighter-bomber

National origin
United States

Manufacturer
Chance Vought

First flight
29 May 1940

Introduction
28 December 1942

Retired
1953 (United States)
1979 (Honduras)

Primary users
United States Navy
United States Marine Corps
Royal Navy
Royal New Zealand Air Force

Produced
1942–53

Number built
12,571

Variants
Goodyear F2G Corsair

From February 1943 onward, the F4U operated from Guadalcanal and ultimately
other bases in the Solomon Islands. A dozen USMC F4U-1s of VMF-124, commanded by
Major William E. Gise, arrived at Henderson Field (code name "Cactus") on 12
February. The first recorded combat engagement was on 14 February 1943, when
Corsairs of VMF-124 under Major Gise assisted P-40s and P-38s in escorting a
formation of Consolidated B-24 Liberators on a raid against a Japanese aerodrome
at Kahili. Japanese fighters contested the raid and the Americans got the worst
of it, with four P-38s, two P-40s, two Corsairs and two Liberators lost. No more
than four Japanese Zeros were destroyed. A Corsair was responsible for one of
the kills, albeit due to a midair collision. The fiasco was referred to as the
"Saint Valentine's Day Massacre". Despite the debut, the Marines quickly learned
how to make better use of the aircraft and started demonstrating its superiority
over Japanese fighters. By May, the Corsair units were getting the upper hand,
and VMF-124 had produced the first Corsair ace, Second Lieutenant Kenneth A.
Walsh, who would rack up a total of 21 kills during the war. He remembered:

"I learned quickly that altitude was paramount. Whoever had altitude dictated
the terms of the battle, and there was nothing a Zero pilot could do to change
that — we had him. The F4U could outperform a Zero in every aspect except slow
speed manoeuvrability and slow speed rate of climb. Therefore you avoided
getting slow when combating a Zero. It took time but eventually we developed
tactics and deployed them very effectively... There were times, however, that I
tangled with a Zero at slow speed, one on one. In these instances I considered
myself fortunate to survive a battle. Of my 21 victories, 17 were against Zeros,
and I lost five aircraft in combat. I was shot down three times and I crashed
one that ploughed into the line back at base and wiped out another F4U.

One particularly unusual kill was scored by Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of
VMF-312 (the "Checkerboards"), over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a
Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin-engine fighter at extremely high altitude
when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme
cold. He flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the
Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller
blades, he managed to land safely after this aerial ramming attack. He was
awarded the Navy Cross.

Specifications F4U-4

General characteristics
Crew: One
Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.26 m)
Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)
Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,175 kg)
Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine, 2,380 hp (1,770 kW)
Propellers: 4-bladed

Performance
Maximum speed: 446 mph (718 km/h; 388 kn)
Stall speed: 89 mph (143 km/h; 77 kn)
Range: 1,005 mi (873 nmi; 1,617 km)
Combat range: 328 mi (285 nmi; 528 km)
Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,600 m)
Rate of climb: 4,360 ft/min (22.1 m/s)

Armament

Guns:
6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, 400 rounds per gun or
4 × 0.79 in (20 mm) AN/M3 cannon, 231 rounds per gun

Rockets: 8 × 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or
Bombs: 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg)




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