How many F4U Corsairs are left today?
Between 1941 and 1952, some 12,500 F4Us rolled off the assembly line. Today there are fewer than 30 Corsairs left, and only 10 to 15 are flyable in the United States. There were only seven of those at the Gathering of Corsairs and Legends reunion at Indianapolis. The Corsair was nicknamed “whistling death” by ground troops because of its distinctive sound when in attack mode at lower altitudes. From 1942 until the end of production in 1952, three manufacturers—Vought, Goodyear, and Brewster—built more than 12,500 Corsairs.Between 1941 and 1952, some 12,500 F4Us rolled off the assembly line. Today there are fewer than 30 Corsairs left, and only 10 to 15 are flyable in the United States. There were only seven of those at the Gathering of Corsairs and Legends reunion at Indianapolis.
How many F4U Corsairs were shot down in WWII?
In the course of shooting down 2,140 enemy aircraft, only 189 Corsairs were lost in combat, a ratio of better than 11 to one. From February 13, 1942, when a handful of Corsairs first engaged the Japanese at Guadalcanal, until V-J Day, Corsairs carried out a total of 64,051 action sorties. In his autobiography “Samurai,” the top Japanese ace Saburo Sakai revealed that the Corsair was the better interceptor and dog fighter, and thus the most feared of all Allied aircraft. It terrified the Japanese from Guadalcanal to the end of the war.
What did the British think of the F4U Corsair?
The Royal Navy put the Corsair into carrier operations immediately. They found its landing characteristics dangerous, suffering a number of fatal crashes, but considered the Corsair to be the best option they had. Its low-speed handling was tricky due to the left wing stalling before the right wing. This factor, together with poor visibility over the long nose (leading to one of its nicknames, The Hose Nose), made landing a Corsair on a carrier a difficult task.
What did the Japanese call the F4U Corsair?
In the hands of American Naval Aviators, Corsairs accounted for 2,140 Japanese aircraft shot down in World War II, and the sound the aircraft made when it was flying close air support missions during island campaigns inspired the Japanese to call the plane Whistling Death. Still in service with both Navy and Marine . By the end of the war, the Corsair flew over 64,000 sorties, shot down over 2,000 enemy aircraft, and only lost 189 planes in action to the enemy. The Corsair had the lowest loss rate in the Pacific War for an aircraft. However, the end of World War II was not the end of service for the Corsair.