CORSAIR ILLUSTRATED

Corsair! The very name seems to conjure images of speed, and for good reason. The dictionary defines Corsair as a “government-sanctioned freebooter of the seas,” (1540s, from French corsaire), from Provençal cursar, Italian corsaro, from Medieval Latin cursarius “pirate,” from Latin cursus “course, a running,” from currere “to run” (from PIE root *kers- “to run”).Those Corsairs, given their mission, had to be fast enough to outrun the naval opposition, so the name was entirely appropriate for the Vought F4U, the “bent-wing bird” that terrorized Japanese forces in WWII, who christened the F4U “Whistling Death” for the sound its distinctive aerodynamics produced as it dove on them. That may have been a name used by those on the receiving end of the Corsair attacks, but I doubt that any Japanese commander would have briefed his pilots by telling them to expect to encounter the “Whistling Death”. To them, it was simply the “Sikorsky”. On the other hand, the grunts who counted on the Corsair for aerial support had other names, including; “Angel of Okinawa”, and the “Sweetheart of The Marianas”. Neutral nick names included “U Bird” or “Bent Wing Bird”. Not so complimentary names, which referred to the difficulty to master the Corsair were “Ensign Eliminator’ and “Bent Wing Elimnator”. It did have a high accident rate, but the qualities that led to mishaps also, flown by well-trained and aggresive pilots, made the Corsair one of the best fighters of World War II.The prototype XF4U Corsair made its first flight in 1940 and became the first single engine fighter to achieve 400 mph in level flight. The F4U was not the first Corsair, but it quickly eclipsed the original Vought O2/3U Corsairs. Though it was designed as a carrier fighter, its most effective early mission was as a land-based fighter in the Southwest Pacific early in the war. It quickly demonstrated its superiority, and by war’s end it had posted an 11 to 1 kill ratio over the enemy.The prototype was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1940. It was the first of 12,571 F4U Corsairs, spanning 16 separate models. The 1942–1953 production run was the longest of any U.S. piston-engined fighter. The last of that run went to the French, who used the Corsair extensively in the first Indochina War and in other post-colonial hotspots. The operational career of the Corsair was relatively long and colorful. Read more