Chance-Vought F4U-1A Corsair
Possibly the most famous fighter of the US Navy and Marine Corps in World War II, the F4U Corsair started as a response to a 1938 US Navy requirement for a carrier-based fighter that could achieve the most “maximum speed possible,” and yet still have a stall speed of 70 miles an hour or less for carrier landings. It was a design requirement thought nearly impossible, but Chance-Vought gave it a try, mating the most powerful engine then available—the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp—with an airframe designed around the enormous engine. This required a wide wing and high landing gear to allow the propeller to clear the ground or deck—too high for US Navy standards. To shorten the landing gear, Chance-Vought adopted an inverted-gull wing that bent the wing downwards from the fuselage and upwards away from the landing gear. This not only solved the landing gear problem, but also gave the XF4U design better performance.
When the first XF4U-1 Corsair flew in May 1940, it met the Navy’s desire for speed, becoming the first single-engined American fighter to break 400 mph, and setting a mark faster than that of the fastest US Army Air Corps fighter, the P-38 Lightning. By this time, World War II was in full swing, and reports from Europe led Grumman to switch to an all-.50 caliber machine gun armament, with provision for later installation of 20mm cannon if necessary.
While pilots loved the Corsair’s superb performance in the vertical, it was proving problematic as a carrier-based fighter. Since the R-2800 engine was so huge and the fuel tanks placed in the fuselage to keep the aircraft’s center of balance stable, the cockpit was set further back than normal, making it difficult to see over the nose on landing approach. Because of the torque of the aircraft, the Corsair also proved prone to stalls on missed carrier landings, and had a tendency to bounce on landing—which could cause the aircraft to bounce over the arresting cables and into parked aircraft forward on the deck. Visibility was also considered to be inadequate in the F4U-1’s “birdcage” canopy. Unable to solve these problems, the Navy turned to the simpler, easier-to-fly F6F Hellcat as its primary carrier fighter, relegating the Corsair to Marine land-based units.
It would be the Marines who would prove the worth of the Corsair, beginning in 1943. In combat, it was found to be far faster than any Japanese fighter then in service, and its engine power finally ended the A6M Zero’s dominance in climbs; the Corsair still could not match the Zero in slow maneuvering fights, but this proved not to be much of an obstacle for Marine pilots. Flying from bases in the Solomon Islands chain, units such as Gregory “Pappy” Boyington’s VMF-214 “Black Sheep,” and Robert “Butcher Bob” Hanson’s VMF-215 “Flying Corsairs,” joined by the land-based VF-17 “Jolly Rogers,” which included Tommy Blackburn and Ira Kepford, the Corsairs were to prove deadly to Japanese aircraft over the hard-fought Southwest Pacific. These squadrons racked up an impressive 11-to-1 kill ratio over Japanese opponents, which to this point in the war the US had been lucky to achieve parity. The derisive nicknames of “Hosenose” and “Hog” became affectionate, and the F4U acquired another nickname of the “Bent-Winged Bird.” The Japanese had a far more telling name for the Corsair, however: “Whistling Death,” caused by the sound of air rushing through the supercharger intakes in the wings.
While the Hellcat was proving itself as well, the Navy still wanted a way to put the Corsair back onto carriers. The British Fleet Air Arm, which also adopted the Corsair, had found some solutions to the Corsair’s carrier landing problems—using a snakelike approach to the carrier, only turning into the final landing leg at the last moment, while adding a “Malcolm Hood” developed for the Spitfire to raise the pilot’s seat seven inches. This mitigated much of the problems with the Corsair, while Chance-Vought itself solved the stall problem by a slight modification to the wings and the bouncing problem by a hydraulic pressure bleed system. Finally, the F4U was ready for carrier operations.
It was to prove itself once more. First deployed in numbers during the Okinawa campaign of 1945, the Corsair gained another moniker, the “Angel of Okinawa” for its support of Marines ashore and sailors afloat. Faced with mass kamikaze attacks from Japan itself, the Corsair’s speed meant that it could run down kamikazes on their final attack runs, and its range meant it could catch kamikazes far enough away from the fleet. Modification of late-war F4U-1A Corsairs into fighter-bombers allowed them to put bombs and rockets onto ground targets for American troops on Okinawa itself.
The Corsair was the only wartime US Navy propeller-driven fighter to remain in service after World War II, and successive marks improved the fighter still further, namely replacing the machine guns with 20mm cannon. Navy and Marine Corsairs would see extensive service over Korea (Guy Bordelon would become the Navy's only Korean War ace in a F4U-5N). They would also see action under other flags: the French used Corsairs in Indochina and North Africa, and El Salvador and Honduras both flew Corsairs in the infamous "Soccer War" of 1969, the last time piston-engined fighters engaged each other. Almost 100 Corsairs remain today, many in flyable condition.
Built as Bureau Number 17799, this F4U-1A joined the Navy in 1943, but its wartime service is a little confusing: either it remained with the Navy, or was reassigned to the Marines in the Southwest Pacific for a time, flying with no less than seven USMC squadrons, including VMF-214, the famous "Black Sheep." 17799 either remained with the Marines and finished the war in summer 1944 with VMF-441 ("Blackjacks"), or returned to the Navy and flew with VBF-14 and VBF-98 before World War II ended. Either way, 17799 is a combat veteran.
After the war, 17799, as an older F4U-1A, was withdrawn from service and eventually sold. It was acquired by MGM Studios for a movie, but the movie was never made, and 17799 languished in MGM's back lot until 1970, slowly falling apart. That year, it was bought by Planes of Fame, and by 1975, 17799 returned to the air. That was just in time to be one of the aircraft used in the TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep," which--while wildly inaccurate--rekindled interest in the Corsair. It was briefly flown as a racer from 1978 to 1980, but since then, 17799 has been a regular on the airshow circuit.
Normally, 17799 is painted in midwar tricolor camouflage, but it was one of four Corsairs assembled for filming the movie "Devotion" in 2019-2020. As "Devotion" takes place during Korea--it's the story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown--17799 was repainted as a F4U-4B of VF-32 ("Swordsmen") off the USS Leyte (CV-32). More than likely, as filming has wrapped on the movie as of this writing, 17799 will be repainted back in the tricolor scheme--but a Corsair tends to look good in any colors. As someone who has been following the filming of "Devotion" on Facebook, seeing one of the aircraft actually used in the film--not to mention seeing one of the Corsairs from my favorite show as a kid--was really a treat. We saw 17799 in May 2021.
EDIT (September 2021): And again in September, a long way from home at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho!
Chance-Vought F4U-1A Corsair
Possibly the most famous fighter of the US Navy and Marine Corps in World War II, the F4U Corsair started as a response to a 1938 US Navy requirement for a carrier-based fighter that could achieve the most “maximum speed possible,” and yet still have a stall speed of 70 miles an hour or less for carrier landings. It was a design requirement thought nearly impossible, but Chance-Vought gave it a try, mating the most powerful engine then available—the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp—with an airframe designed around the enormous engine. This required a wide wing and high landing gear to allow the propeller to clear the ground or deck—too high for US Navy standards. To shorten the landing gear, Chance-Vought adopted an inverted-gull wing that bent the wing downwards from the fuselage and upwards away from the landing gear. This not only solved the landing gear problem, but also gave the XF4U design better performance.
When the first XF4U-1 Corsair flew in May 1940, it met the Navy’s desire for speed, becoming the first single-engined American fighter to break 400 mph, and setting a mark faster than that of the fastest US Army Air Corps fighter, the P-38 Lightning. By this time, World War II was in full swing, and reports from Europe led Grumman to switch to an all-.50 caliber machine gun armament, with provision for later installation of 20mm cannon if necessary.
While pilots loved the Corsair’s superb performance in the vertical, it was proving problematic as a carrier-based fighter. Since the R-2800 engine was so huge and the fuel tanks placed in the fuselage to keep the aircraft’s center of balance stable, the cockpit was set further back than normal, making it difficult to see over the nose on landing approach. Because of the torque of the aircraft, the Corsair also proved prone to stalls on missed carrier landings, and had a tendency to bounce on landing—which could cause the aircraft to bounce over the arresting cables and into parked aircraft forward on the deck. Visibility was also considered to be inadequate in the F4U-1’s “birdcage” canopy. Unable to solve these problems, the Navy turned to the simpler, easier-to-fly F6F Hellcat as its primary carrier fighter, relegating the Corsair to Marine land-based units.
It would be the Marines who would prove the worth of the Corsair, beginning in 1943. In combat, it was found to be far faster than any Japanese fighter then in service, and its engine power finally ended the A6M Zero’s dominance in climbs; the Corsair still could not match the Zero in slow maneuvering fights, but this proved not to be much of an obstacle for Marine pilots. Flying from bases in the Solomon Islands chain, units such as Gregory “Pappy” Boyington’s VMF-214 “Black Sheep,” and Robert “Butcher Bob” Hanson’s VMF-215 “Flying Corsairs,” joined by the land-based VF-17 “Jolly Rogers,” which included Tommy Blackburn and Ira Kepford, the Corsairs were to prove deadly to Japanese aircraft over the hard-fought Southwest Pacific. These squadrons racked up an impressive 11-to-1 kill ratio over Japanese opponents, which to this point in the war the US had been lucky to achieve parity. The derisive nicknames of “Hosenose” and “Hog” became affectionate, and the F4U acquired another nickname of the “Bent-Winged Bird.” The Japanese had a far more telling name for the Corsair, however: “Whistling Death,” caused by the sound of air rushing through the supercharger intakes in the wings.
While the Hellcat was proving itself as well, the Navy still wanted a way to put the Corsair back onto carriers. The British Fleet Air Arm, which also adopted the Corsair, had found some solutions to the Corsair’s carrier landing problems—using a snakelike approach to the carrier, only turning into the final landing leg at the last moment, while adding a “Malcolm Hood” developed for the Spitfire to raise the pilot’s seat seven inches. This mitigated much of the problems with the Corsair, while Chance-Vought itself solved the stall problem by a slight modification to the wings and the bouncing problem by a hydraulic pressure bleed system. Finally, the F4U was ready for carrier operations.
It was to prove itself once more. First deployed in numbers during the Okinawa campaign of 1945, the Corsair gained another moniker, the “Angel of Okinawa” for its support of Marines ashore and sailors afloat. Faced with mass kamikaze attacks from Japan itself, the Corsair’s speed meant that it could run down kamikazes on their final attack runs, and its range meant it could catch kamikazes far enough away from the fleet. Modification of late-war F4U-1A Corsairs into fighter-bombers allowed them to put bombs and rockets onto ground targets for American troops on Okinawa itself.
The Corsair was the only wartime US Navy propeller-driven fighter to remain in service after World War II, and successive marks improved the fighter still further, namely replacing the machine guns with 20mm cannon. Navy and Marine Corsairs would see extensive service over Korea (Guy Bordelon would become the Navy's only Korean War ace in a F4U-5N). They would also see action under other flags: the French used Corsairs in Indochina and North Africa, and El Salvador and Honduras both flew Corsairs in the infamous "Soccer War" of 1969, the last time piston-engined fighters engaged each other. Almost 100 Corsairs remain today, many in flyable condition.
Built as Bureau Number 17799, this F4U-1A joined the Navy in 1943, but its wartime service is a little confusing: either it remained with the Navy, or was reassigned to the Marines in the Southwest Pacific for a time, flying with no less than seven USMC squadrons, including VMF-214, the famous "Black Sheep." 17799 either remained with the Marines and finished the war in summer 1944 with VMF-441 ("Blackjacks"), or returned to the Navy and flew with VBF-14 and VBF-98 before World War II ended. Either way, 17799 is a combat veteran.
After the war, 17799, as an older F4U-1A, was withdrawn from service and eventually sold. It was acquired by MGM Studios for a movie, but the movie was never made, and 17799 languished in MGM's back lot until 1970, slowly falling apart. That year, it was bought by Planes of Fame, and by 1975, 17799 returned to the air. That was just in time to be one of the aircraft used in the TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep," which--while wildly inaccurate--rekindled interest in the Corsair. It was briefly flown as a racer from 1978 to 1980, but since then, 17799 has been a regular on the airshow circuit.
Normally, 17799 is painted in midwar tricolor camouflage, but it was one of four Corsairs assembled for filming the movie "Devotion" in 2019-2020. As "Devotion" takes place during Korea--it's the story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown--17799 was repainted as a F4U-4B of VF-32 ("Swordsmen") off the USS Leyte (CV-32). More than likely, as filming has wrapped on the movie as of this writing, 17799 will be repainted back in the tricolor scheme--but a Corsair tends to look good in any colors. As someone who has been following the filming of "Devotion" on Facebook, seeing one of the aircraft actually used in the film--not to mention seeing one of the Corsairs from my favorite show as a kid--was really a treat. We saw 17799 in May 2021.
EDIT (September 2021): And again in September, a long way from home at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho!