War Eagles Air Museum, Santa Teresa, New Mexico
This particular aircraft flew off of the carrier Valley Forge during
the Korean War. These Corsairs were the last propeller-driven fighters
built in the United States. There were 16 models of the Corsair. The inverted
gull wing (that dip as the wing comes off of the fuselage) was created so
that the landing struts could be short enough to retract yet provide
enough headroom for the large propellers during landing and take-off.
From museum signage: “Built by Chance Vought Co. of Stratford, Conn., the first production model was delivered on June 25, 1942 and continued until the roll-out of the last F4U-7 in December 1952. Design work started in Feb. 1938 with the idea of creating a totally new fighter for Navy carrier use. The unusual inverted gull wing design, its most famous trade mark, was developed to allow clearance for the large 13 foot propeller while landing and taking off without causing an unacceptable high angle of wing attack. The prototype was first flown on May 1940. By 1942 it was in full production with the marine corps getting priority for delivery because of the size of our carrier force at that time. During WWII (1941-1945) the Corsair logged over 64,000 combat sorties, and is credited with the destruction of 2,140 enemy aircraft, at a cost of 190 Corsairs shot down. During the campaigns against the Japanese. In the islands of the South Pacific, the Corsair was very effective in close support missions and was a true fried of the front line, foxhole troops. It was nicknamed the “Sweetheart of Okinawa” by the U.S. Marine ground forces. But to the Japanese it was a terror, and they named it “Whispering Death”. The Corsair was acknowledged by many to be the finest naval fighter of World War II. Marine Squadron 214, which flew Corsairs in the central Solomon Islands, was led by Medal of Honor recipient, Major Gregory Boyington. This unit was highly popularized after the war. Dubbed the “Black Sheep Squadron” this outwit was a very effective combat unit during the intense activity in the Russel Islands, New Georgia, Bouganville, New Britain and the New Ireland campaigns. “Pappy” Boyington took command of the Black Sheep on Sept. 1943, and continued in that capacity until 3 Jan. 1944, when he was shot down over Rabaul and captured by a Japanese submarine. The Korean War of 1950-53 saw a return to combat for the venerable Corsair and once again it proved its worth as a close support attack plane and a fighter plane. The Corsair in front of you last saw action during the conflict of 1952 while operating from the carrier “Valley Forge”. The Corsair’s front line service stretched into the 60’s and was the last propeller-driven fighter built in the United States.
This line drawing of a different Corsair modelwas created
by Kaboldy and is used here under
a Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.