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The beautiful Chance-Vought Corsair is one of the most iconic planes of the second world war. But it has a lot of designations, and that can get confusing. There’s the F4U, the FG, the F2G, the F3A to name a few. The British flew the Corsair Mk I, II, III, and IV. There’s also an AU-1 Corsair, used by the Marines during the Korean War. Let’s break it down. Beginning in 1922 the Navy classified fighter aircraft as “F.” Each manufacturer was assigned a code letter, and Vought’s was “U.” So in 1927 Vought developed the FU biplane. 1929 was...

Fascinating pictures of America's famous WW2 Black Sheep Squadron whose efforts helped win the war in the Pacific have been released in vibrant color. The series shows the squadron's commanding officer, Colonel Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington who received the Medal of Honour and the Navy Cross, briefing his men on strategy and tactics before the 17 October 1943 attack on Kahili airdrome at Bougainville island, Papua New Guinea. In this raid 'Pappy' and 24 fighters circled the field where 60 enemy aircraft were based to goad them into sending a large force. In the ensuing air battle, 20 enemy aircraft were...

The last dogfights between piston-engine, propeller-driven airplanes weren’t fought in the skies over Germany in the 1940s or even Korea in the 1950s. They occurred in Central America in 1969, and all of the combatants were flying U.S.-built Corsairs and Mustangs. The dogfights were among the final acts in a brief but bloody four-day conflict between Honduras and El Salvador, commonly (but misleadingly) known as the Football War. Although a pair of soccer games between the two nations sparked the initial riots, the war was the culmination of longstanding tension over immigration and land reform. Honduras boasted the more impressive...

A-7 Corsair II and the VAL program: how a multiservice aircraft should be developed There are several examples of combat aircraft that were born with the aim to serve in two or three different services of the same nation in aviation history. Usually, these programs face many problems before they reach their full operational capability and they struggle to satisfy the different customers who put them into service. This rule is confirmed by the last of these aircraft, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) which generated the three different versions of the F-35, as well as an older program, the Tactical...

Using a tweezers, the controls can be moved. All cables and linkages are in place to work the wing control surfaces as well. Young Park has since carved a pilot's face and hands from solid aluminum and built an articulated pilot to sit in the cockpit?Remember this as you look at the pics........... All the controls work as designed, by cables, chains, linkages and levers.Every single part hand made and fitted.

DALLAS — After four years of painstaking labor, artisans of the Vought Aircraft Retirees Club have restored an icon of U.S. aviation history, a World War II-vintage F4U Corsair fighter plane.Working with pieces and parts from several wrecked and scrapped aircraft and building many others themselves from drawings, the retirees have spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars re-creating a version of the distinctive, gull-winged plane that Japanese soldiers and sailors dubbed "Whistling Death."Rebuilding the Corsair, one of two great fighter planes — the other was the Grumman F6F Hellcat — that enabled Navy and Marine pilots...

Home > Magazines > Naval History Magazine > Current Issue > Story Print Page E-mail Page Naval History Magazine Issue: February 2009 Volume 23, Number 1 Contents Subscription Content Online Discussion Previous Issues Back to January 2009 Online Content Flying the Early-Early NATIONAL ARCHIVES In the predawn darkness, armorers make electrical connections on rockets as they prepare a cannon-armed Corsair for launch. Beneath the plane's whirling propeller is the catapult lug with attached bridle, which will soon be connected to the plane. Pictures By Lieutenant Colonel James L. Cooper, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired) Launched from a solitary aircraft carrier...

The Health Net Corsair Celebration Day was held at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford on Monday. Here, a vintage Corsair is given a fly-by as spectators watch, by chief pilot Jim Vocell. Vocell is from the American Air Power Museum in Farmingdale, NY. (Christian Abraham/Connecticut Post) STRATFORD — Hugh Pickering looked over the dark blue aircraft with the bent wings and large propeller as it sat quietly outside a hangar at Sikorsky Memorial Airport. On Monday, that plane was more than a relic. It was a time machine, propelling Pickering back more than 60 years to an island called...

It's taken six years and a special act of Congress, but an aircraft mechanic from Princeton, Minn., is the undisputed owner of a rare World War II Corsair fighter plane that he salvaged 15 years ago from a North Carolina swamp. Last week, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis in Minneapolis approved a settlement that ends a lawsuit filed a year ago by the U.S. Justice Department against Lex Cralley. The lawsuit was the climax of an escalating battle of wills that had been going on since 1999 between the 50-year-old Northwest Airlines mechanic and the U.S. Navy. "I've been under...

Beginning this weekend, aircraft buffs will be able to stroll up to and touch about half dozen historic aircraft at the city's newest public facility, the Heritage Airpark. The airpark, at 25th Street East and Avenue P, is a memorial to the aircraft designed, built and tested at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 since the facility was established in 1951. The airpark is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays beginning Jan. 17. A formal ceremony marking the opening of the facility will be held in March, noted Mayor Jim Ledford. Meanwhile, volunteers will continue to prepare...

French block airlift of British troops to Basra By Henry Samuel and Michael Smith (Filed: 16/09/2003) The French government has told an airline that it is not to ferry British troops to Basra, a ban that will be seen as reflecting Paris's opposition to the occupation of Iraq.Corsair, which has been chartered numerous times to transport UK forces around the world, pulled out of a contract to fly reinforcements to Basra at the weekend. About 1,400 more troops are being sent to Basra as part of an attempt to prevent the "strategic failure" predicted by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary,...