| General
History
The
Corsair was the first fighter to exceed 400 mph and served
on both land and sea as a fighter and a bomber. It helped
turn the tide against the Japanese Zero and gave American
pilots an advantage in the critical air battles of the
South Pacific. The Corsair’s most recognizable feature
was its inverted gull wing. This gave good ground clearance
for its huge 13-foot, 2-inch propeller and allowed its
short landing gear to retract rearwards into the wing.
While the Corsair was originally designed to be a carrier-based
aircraft, it was some time before it became carrier qualified.
It was a handful for a novice pilot as its long nose gave
poor visibility on carrier approaches. Its large propeller
caused tremendous torque at slow speeds and it had a nasty
habit of dropping the left wing at stalling speeds. This
was solved by a 6-inch “stall” strip, visible
on the right wing leading edge that allowed both wings
to stall at the same time. The Corsair was made famous
with pilots like Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington,
who commanded the legendary “Black Sheep”
Squadron. Corsairs went on to fight in Korea and were
used by the Air Force of Honduras as late as the 1970’s.
To
learn about the personal history of our very own Chance
- Vought F4U-4 Corsair as well as comments from Kermit
Weeks, please visit our beautiful art deco facility and
old-fashioned hangars.
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Current
Value: $1,000,000
(Top 2 Photos by
Rick Reeves)
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