800px-AU-1 Corsair in flight 1952
The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair was an American World War II fighter aircraft. It was a carrier-based aircraft, which was used in the Pacific War by the United States Marine Corps first and later by the US Navy. After World War II it was also used in the Korea War. The last missions of the F4U were in the year 1969, during the Football War, between Honduras and El Salvador.

Development Edit

The prototype of the F4U was designed in 1938. The aims of the F4U development were to produce an aircraft with minimum air resistance and maximum speed. For that the most powerful engine being available at this time, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800, with a power of 1,324 kW (1,824 hp), was mounted in a fuselage, which was built to be as small as possible.

The first prototype, which was called V-166B by Vought, was ordered in June 1938. The first flight of the XF4U-1 was on 29th May 1940. It reached in horizontal flight a maximum speed of 708 km/h (404 mph). In the middle of the year 1941, the US Navy ordered multiple aircraft, which should have some modifications. So that the F4U was equipped with self-healing fuel tanks and instead of the R-2800 an R-2800-8 was included, which had 149 kW more power. The cockpit was placed 91 cm backwards. The first definitive aircraft had its first flight on 25th June 1942 and one month later the first aircraft were delivered. Carrier testing, last in September 1942
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on the USS Sangamon, showed some problems, like problematic landings and bad pilot visibility. The Navy did not use the aircraft until the appearance of the more advanced F4U-1A in April 1943. The upgraded variant had better pilot visibility because of a new canopy and the upwards placed cockpit. To realise the large numbers, the F4U was also produced by Chance Vought Aircraft in Dallas, as well as by Brewster in Long Island and by Goodyear in Akron Ohio.[1]

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