Corsair
The Chance-Vought F4U-1D Corsair, one of World War II's most effective dive-bomber and attack naval planes, had a distinctive bent-wing configuration.
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Updated On: 9/17/2007Print

The Chance-Vought F4U-1D Corsair, one of World War II's most effective dive-bomber and attack naval planes, had a distinctive bent-wing configuration. The whistling sound generated by its wing air-intakes earned it the nickname 'Whistling Death'

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was an American fighter aircraft that saw service in World War II and the Korean War (and in isolated local conflicts). Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. The Corsair served in some air forces until the 1960s, following the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in history (1940 - 1953). During World War II, it was the fighter the Japanese feared the most. The US Navy counted the average kill-rate as for every F4U shot down, 11 enemy aircraft were shot down.It had a turbocharged engine, which made a whistling sound when it was in the air.

Background
The Corsair started life as the result of a U.S. Navy requirement for a carrier aircraft which could match the performance of the best land and carrier-based fighter planes. Designed in 1938 by Rex Biesel, the first prototype Corsair designated XF4U-1 first flew on 29 May 1940.When flown in 1940, the XF4U-1, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine, became the first U.S. single-engine production aircraft capable of 400 mph (640 km/h) in level flight. It was a remarkable achievement for Vought, as compared to land-based counterparts, carrier aircraft are "overbuilt" and heavier to withstand the extreme stress of deck landings.

The Corsair first entered service in 1942. Although designed as a carrier fighter, initial operation from carrier decks proved to be troublesome. Its slow speed handling was tricky due to the port wing stalling before the starboard wing.[citation needed] This factor, together with poor visibility over the long nose (leading to one of its nicknames, "The Hose Nose"), made landing a Corsair on a carrier a difficult task. For these reasons, most Corsairs initially went to Marine Corps squadrons who operated off land-based runways, which in turn led Goodyear to build some early Corsairs with fixed, non-folding wings.The USMC aviators welcomed the Corsair with open arms as its performance was far superior to the F4F-3 and -4 Wildcat, which were being used at that time, and superior in a number of ways to the F6F Hellcat, which replaced the Wildcat.

Moreover, the Corsair was able to outperform the primary Japanese fighter, the Mitsubishi A6M "Zero". While the Zero could out-turn the F4U at slower speeds, the Corsair was faster and could out-climb and out-dive the enemy fighters. Tactics developed early in the war, such as the Thach Weave, took advantage of the Corsair's strengths.

This performance advantage, combined with the ability to take severe punishment, meant that a pilot could place an enemy aircraft in the killing zone from the F4U's six .50-caliber Browning machine guns and keep him there long enough to inflict major damage. The 2,300 rounds carried by the Corsair gave over one full minute of fire from each gun, which, fired in three-to-six-second bursts, made the U-Bird a devastating weapon against aircraft, ground targets, and even ships.[citation needed]

The Royal Navy also received Corsairs from 1943 and went ahead with flying them from Fleet Air Arm (FAA) carriers successfully in combat with the British Pacific Fleet and in Norway.

The Corsair served with the US Navy, US Marines, the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Royal New Zealand Air Force (postwar, the French Aeronavale and other services), and quickly became the most capable carrier-based fighter-bomber of the war. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in additional aircraft being produced by the Goodyear Company (as the FG-1) and the Brewster Company (as the F3A-1). From the first prototype delivery to the US Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs had been manufactured by Vought

The Corsair is popularly known as "The Sweetheart of the Marianas" and "The Angel of Okinawa" for its roles in these campaigns respectively—the names were given by ground troops rather than by naval and Marine personnel. Among pilots, however, the aircraft was nicknamed "Ensign Eliminator" and "Bent-Wing Eliminator" because it required many more hours of flight training to master than other Navy carrier-borne aircraft. It was also called simply "U-bird" or "Bent Wing Bird". The Japanese named the F4U "Whistling Death" because of the high-pitched sound it made (caused by airflow through the wing-root oil coolers).

The Corsair has been named the official aircraft of Connecticut, due to its connection with Sikorsky Aircraft, in legislation sponsored by state senator George "Doc" Gunther; Gunther had also organized a Corsair Celebration and Symposium at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut, on Memorial Day, 29 May 2006

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