F4U Corsair in Action by Jim Sullivan (new book)

Description

Book condition is New.

F4U Corsair in Action by Jim Sullivan is a softcover non-fiction book 80 pages in length. The Corsair was designed and operated as a carrier-based aircraft, and entered service in large numbers with the U.S. Navy in late 1944 and early 1945. It quickly became one of the most capable carrier-based fighter-bombers of World War II. This book covers the many variants of the F4U and tells the F4U story mainly via pictures - includes 228 vintage photos in black-and-white and color.

Bringing to mind the exploits of “Pappy” Boyington and his Blacksheep Squadron and Tommy Blackburn with the Jolly Rogers, the Corsair is among the most formidable US fighters of WWII. The F4U maintained a kill ratio of 11:1 and went on to serve in Korea, holding its own in the early years of the Jet Age. The Corsair was first conceived as a high-speed, high-altitude fighter for the Navy in 1938 when Chance Vought’s design team drew up plans for a fighter with an 1,800-hp engine and a huge 13-foot propeller. The Corsair’s famous inverted gull wing design was introduced to allow prop clearance. Handling problems delayed the aircraft’s deployment aboard carriers, but Marine Corps pilots quickly took to the powerful, rugged fighter and VMF-124, the first Marine squadron to fly the Corsair in combat, also produced the first Corsair air ace, Kenneth A. Walsh, by the summer of 1943. A total of 12,571 Corsairs were built between 1940 and 1952, most of them by Vought, but hundreds by Goodyear and Brewster as those companies’ assembly lines had to be pressed into service to meet soaring demand for the remarkable aircraft. This exhaustive volume surveys the history of the Corsair from its first prototype to the restored warbirds that have continued to delight air show audiences to the present day.

F4U Corsair in Action by Jim Sullivan (New book)

F4U Corsair in Action by Jim Sullivan (New book)