Vought F4U "Corsair"

PLANE TYPE: Single seated embarked fighter/bomber (F4U-4) The best of the embarked fighters of the WW2, the F4U remained in production the longest in rapport to other US fighters of the period and had a 11:1 kills / losses rapport with the Japan planes. The prototype XF4U-1 flew in the May of 1940; after a long developing period it began to enter active duty in October 1943, initially with a Marines unit as land-based plane. The F4U-1 ,apart from the Vought (4699 built), was built also by the Brewster as F3A (735 built) and by the Goodyear as FG (4006 built), with variants as the -1 with 6 machine-guns, the -1A with fixed wings, the -1B for the British, the -1C with 4 20mm cannons, the -1D with bombs and rockets, the -1P for recon duty. The F4U-2 was the conversion as a night-interceptor and the D4U-4 (2354 built) had more power. Developing and production continued until 1952 , for a total of 12571 planes built.

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