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 propellor ever fitted to a fighter, the prototype was the first US warplane to exceed 400 mph and outperformed all other American aircraft.
Originally fitted with two fuselage and two wing guns, it was replanned with six 0.5 inch 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 F4U-1C had four 20mm cannon, and the -1D and most subsequent types carried a 160 gallon drop tank and two 1,000 lb (907 kg) bombs or eight rockets. Many hundreds of P versions carried cameras, and N variants had an APS-4 or -6 radar in a wing pod for night interceptions.
Brewster made 735 F3A versions, and Goodyear 4,008 FG versions, but only ten of the fearsome F2G. Fabric-skinned wings became metal in the post-war F4U-5, most of which had cannon, while the 110 AU-1 attack bombers carried a 4,00 lb load in Korea at speeds seldom exceeding 240 mph! In December 1952 the last of the 12,571 Corsairs came off the production line after a longer production run (in terms of time) than any other US fighter prior to the Phantom.