Vought Corsair F4U Print

Vought Corsair F4U-1A white 9 Lonesome Polecat of Lt Merl W 'Butch' Davenport VF-17 flying over USS Yorktown early 1944; digital image © Les Still

Vought Corsair F4U

Dimensions;- Span 41' (12.48m), Length 33'8" (10.27m), height 14'9" (4.49m).

Engine;- (F4U-1) 2,000hp Pratt and Whitney R-2800-B(B) Double Wasp 18 cylinder two row radial, (-1A) 2,250hp R-2800-B(W) with water injection, (-4) 2,450bhp R-2800-!BW with water methanol, (-5) 2,850hp R-2800-32(E) with water methanol, (F2G) 3,000hp Pratt and Whitney R-4380 Wasp Major 28 cylinder four row radial.

Weight;- Empty (-1A) 8,873lb (4025Kg), (-5 typical) 9,900lb (4490kg), maximum loaded (-1A) 14,000lb (6350kg), (-5) 15079lb (6840kg).

Performance;- Maximum Speed (-1A) 395mph (635Km/h), (-5) 462mph (744Km/h), initial climb (-1A) 2,890ft (880m) /min, (-5) 4,800ft 1463m) /min, service ceiling (-1A) 37,000ft (11280m), (-5) 44,000ft (13400m), range on internal fuel typically 1,000miles (1609Km).

Armament;-  see below

History;- First flight (XF4U) 29 May 1940, (production -1) July 1942, combat delivery July 1942, final delivery (-7) December 1952.

Users ( wartime) Mexico, New Zealand, UK (Royal Navy), US (Navy, Marines)

Development;- Designed by Rex Beisel and Igor Sikorsky, the inverted gull wing Corsair was one of the greatest combat aircraft in history. Planned to use the most powerful engine and biggest propeller ever fitted to a fighter, the prototype was the first US warplane to exceed 400mph and outperformed all other American aircraft. Originally fitted with two fuselage and two wing machine guns, it was replanned with six 0.5inch Browning MG 53-2 in the folding outer wings, each with about 390 rounds. Action with land based Marine squadrons began in the Solomons in February 1943, from then on the Corsair swiftly gained air supremacy over the previously untroubled Japanese. The -1C had four 20mm cannon and the -1D and most subsequent type carried a 160 gal drop tank and two 1,000lb (907kg) bombs or eight rockets. Many hundreds of P versions carried cameras, and N variants had an APS-$ or -^ radar in a wing pod for night interceptions. Brewster made 735 F3A and Goodyear 4,008 FG versions, but only ten of the fearsome F2G. Fabric skinned wings became metal in the post war -5, most of which had cannon, while the 110 AU-1 attack bombers carried a 4,000lb load in Korea at speed seldom exceeding 240mph!. In December 1952 the last of 12,571 Corsairs came off the line after a longer production run ( in terms of time ) than any other US fighter plane prior to the Phantom.

from The Military Aviation Library - World War 2 United States Aircraft.

VF-17

This unit was initially formed as a fighter unit aboard the USS Bunker Hill, carrier #17, hence VF-17, however, by Mid 1943 the US Navy was equipping all it's carrier based fighter units with the F6F Hellcat. Because of a one type only maintenance and spares setup adopted by the fleet, the Navy decided to deploy VF-17 'Jolly Rogers' squadron and their Corsairs as a land based unit and in October 1943 they were despatched to a base in the Solomons, on Odonga, 50 miles northeast of Guadalcanal.
The unit soon proved itself and during the Solomons campaign VR-17 was credited with downing 154 Japanese aircraft in 54 days.

While based at Odonga, Lt Merl W 'Butch' Davenport, pilot of white-9 'Lonesome Polecat, was credited with a quarter share in the downing of a Japanese 'Betty' on 6th November 1943. He downed two Japanese Zeros on the 21st of the same month and two more on January 30th 1944, another Zero fell to him on the 5th of February 1944. He went on to shoot down another Zero to bring his credited total to 6.25.