Submarine Blogger Roundup for July 2008

Here is a synopsis of the Facts, opinions, and other fun published by fellow bubble head bloggers for the month of July or earlier.
So, In Alpha numerical order(By blog address ) so no one is deemed a “Golden boy” here they are:

Trickish Knave, First put his Blog in Hot Wet Layup, and then Reconsidered after he found the political climate of upcoming elections too irresistible.

Molten Eagle writes of a Submarine mafia, weighs in on the Capital of Submarines debate, Stew burner’s and the PBS special on those large easy targets, a bird farm, Carrier.

Blunoz and family are getting off Island and on to new destinations with their life and career. He has orders back to the beltway and all the headaches that go with such a move.

Bothnook took a few days of fly fishing with family and then started to lay in supplies for the holiday baking. Finally, he offers insight on the alternative energy debate and global warming

Chap has some posts that link to rather long political discussions

Midwatch Cowboy has everything from a Google “find an Iranian Nuclear facility to Kursk photos.

Mike Lief has cats, dogs, political commentary. He muses over the current political debate in our country and some other subjects.

Myron has been in and out of Surgery for what has become a pretty common ailment that causes a lot of pain and suffering Best of luck on the recovery

Redneck Nerdboy, Well, with a title of Hamsters, dogs and horses... oh my! What more can I say???

Rich is still serving in the “Sand Box” in the reserves. Posts vary from CPO leadership (From a PO1’s opinion) to the fun of serving in a far away place that is not home.

Right Mind, Ranked as Idaho's #1 Political Blog. Need I say more.

Jay has done some traveling, posts about the up coming Virginia class boats and the up coming national elections.

Submandave has recently surfaced again with political commentary

Sonarman,has posting on deck div days, the commercialism of Independence day and the demise of FTN’s blog.

Cookie, well he keeps us entertained daily with his blog. Full of humor and jokes. He has also been a major contributor to getting something done for our troops with the Gregory J Harris Military Courtesy Room at the Syracuse International Airport.

FTN is now offline. The full reason may never be known. Bloggers will miss the postings.

Joel is still leading Submariners to breaking news for the Submarine force, PT uniforms, Movie reviews and continuing to Mock and Belittle general foolishness.

Matt at Twelve Fluid ounces has has resurfaced after doing the job and has numerous posts. ( I need to catch up on him)

Zerobubble has articles an the HMS Astute and USS Lagarto.

There you have it. If I missed you, Drop me a comment and I will update the list.


Update 21 July 2008,

Since this is the first time I tried to do the Roundup, here are those I missed (So Far)
If you know of a Submariner blog, Please leave me a comment and I will do my best to add them.


RM1 has postings on Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge who competed in the Miss England Competition, RIMPAC memories, Medal of Honor recipients and recipients of the Victorian Cross

Spearfish has a really comprehensive British Navy and Submarine Site

Megamunch and a few friends had 120 oz (SEVEN and a half POUNDS) of steak EACH!! You have to see the photos to believe it

Ted has postings on the Glasgow Scottish Festival.

Checks with Chart has a RIMPAC post, and the controversial topic of UFO’s and Nuclear Missiles. Worth checking out.

Willyshake posts on the next James Bond movie and the USAA’s car purchasing services.

Jay has a posting on Smokers who sneak around to support their hasbit and the one’s who still defy the Politically Correct WE KNOW better than you crowd.

And with that I will now go have a smoke.

Job Envy

In the Twenty years I wore the “dirty blue shirt” there was always the give and take of the rate that you chose before you enlisted. Coner’s would always give the Nuke’s the “chose your Rate-Chose your fate you SRB getting SOB’s” when the 1MJ would power whine 2 minutes after watch relief on the mess decks. Then, there was the same attitude from everyone for MT’s during the first week of pulling in and the last week of pulling out of port when they would have to work like rabid monkeys to get all the maintenance done on the missile and other systems. Same held true with my rate when we would hydro ourselves to get the ship out of port and in deep blue water then in and out again for each port/medivac/humivac and liberty call. On a Submarine, Each rating had a skate time and a period that was just horrible. I think the only one’s I never envied were the Yeomen. Those poor devils had bad hours no matter where we were in a deployment period. And if they weren’t supporting the XO/CO for some major paperwork evolution, they were hosed with the 3MC/EDEA putting them on Drill weenie hours.
Now that I have transitioned to the Civilian side, I still have job envy. I caught a nice brass ring getting out and found a great, well paying, satisfying way to make a living that I didn’t have to move, my commute is the same if not shorter than when I was in the Navy and I work with a great bunch of men who have the same twisted sense of humor I do. But still, there are days I sigh and dream

WHAT IF???

First, If I could do anything in the whole world over again, I would choose the Job of Mark Reid.

I grew up in New Mexico with Mark. Actually he was more like an uncle to me than a peer. He is a man of many talents and a great overall guy.
He is a Master Body Painter








Here are some Examples of his work


And Those aren't Blue Jeans,, Those babies are painted on.

This is his specialty in the buisness.

Working with some of these women, I guess you could see the Envy factor.

I am sure that there are day’s Mark asks himself “ Why don’t I do Something Else” like every man can and I am sure does. But I am sure that the are far less frequent than most of us.

And

To airbrush those girls.

WOW

His website Mark Reid Art



And if I couldn’t be a Master Body Painter like Mark,


I would chose this Guy's Job



He has such a Kick ass set of tools, I don’t know if it’s job envy or tool envy that drives me to want to take his place.

Cabinets, tables, Dado’s, Mortis bits…. The ENTIRE collection of Porter Tools, and Delta Tools. Plus a really cool workshop that seems to never have a wife messing with the stuff.

He can take a pallet that has been run over by a Semi and turn it into a French Colonial Cuckoo clock or some other way cool yet useless piece of furniture.

Well there you have it.


I chose my first rate after the Navy and then, there is what I still dream of being when it is boring and mundane.

What all men who tinker in the garage wanted to do this Fourth of July Weekend

Talk about a case of envy, This weekend this popped up in both the "Odd News" segment of the mainstream media and because I live here in the Northwest, it got a bit of airplay on the different Television news media and radio news outlet's.

Alway thought it was plausable, just how safe is still a good question. And, did he have to file that flight plan with the FAA??

Riding a green lawn chair supported by a rainbow array of more than 150 helium-filled party balloons, Kent Couch succeeded Saturday in his third bid to fly from central Oregon all the way to Idaho.

Couch kissed his wife and kids goodbye, and patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, before his ground crew gave him a push so he could clear surrounding light poles and a coffee cart.

Then, clutching a big mug of coffee, Couch rose out of the parking lot of his gas station into the bright blue morning sky, cheered by a crowd of spectators.

"If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend," Couch said before getting into the chair. "Things just look different from up there. You've moving so slowly. The best thing is the peace, the serenity.

"You can hear a dog bark at 15,000 feet."

Said his wife, Susan: "He's crazy. It's never been a dull moment since I married him."

Couch, 48, rode the prevailing wind to the area of McCall, Idaho, about 230 miles east, and traveled at about 20 mph.

Each balloon attached to his chair gives four pounds of lift. The chair weighed about 400 pounds, and Couch and his parachute 200 more.

"I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," Couch said.

For that job he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in balloons, Global Positioning System tracking devices, an altimeter and a satellite phone.

It was his third flight. In 2006, he had to parachute out after popping too many balloons. And last year he flew 193 miles to the sagebrush of northeastern Oregon, short of his goal.

"I'm not stopping till I get out of state," he said.

Couch had to dump some of the 45 gallons of cherry Kool-Aid he carried as ballast before he was able to disappear into the distance. "We wanted some color, and it kind of reminded me of kid days," he said of the ballast.

Couch was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame but was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.

Dozens of volunteers wearing fluorescent green T-shirts with the slogan "Dream Big" filled Couch's 5-foot-diameter latex balloons and fastened them to the rig carrying his chair. A few balloons popped, and one got away.

"I think it's wonderful he's got guts enough to do it," said retired commercial pilot Bob Banta. "I've owned 12 little airplanes, but I've never done anything like this."

Couch, a veteran of hang gliding and sky diving, estimated the rig cost about $6,000, mostly for helium. Costs were defrayed by corporate sponsors.

You have to admit, that is a breathtaking veiw. And I am sure the silence was serene.

American Iron: What made the USA Great; The Chance Vought F4U Corsair

Name: Chance Vought F4U Corsair

DOB: When "BuAer" sent its proposal for a high performance, carrier based fighter to United Aircraft Corporation (parent company of Vought-Sikorsky) on February 1, 1938, it seemed the Navy might have pushed technology to the point of giving it a hernia. C. J. McCarthy, who was Vought’s General Manager, called in the company’s chief engineer, Rex Beisel. Rex was one of those people who lived by the old motto "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible will take a week, ten days at the most."

Occupation: longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–1952)
Hometown: May 1, 1940 and five months later flew the 45 miles (73 km) between Stratford and Hartford, Connecticut at a speed of 405 miles per hour (651.8 kph), becoming the first production aircraft to exceed 400 mph in level flight.

Current residence: Various Collectors and other's who love this plane.

Why this is great American Iron: The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service in World War II and the Korean War (and in isolated local conflicts). Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-built aircraft F3A. The Corsair served in some air forces until the 1960s, following the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–1952 Some Japanese pilots regarded it as the most formidable American fighter of World War II. The U.S. Navy counted an 11:1 kill ratio for every F4U shot down.

The Corsair was designed by Rex Beisel and Igor Sikorsky, and incorporated the largest engine available at the time, the 2,000 hp (1,490 kW) 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial. To extract as much power as possible, a relatively large, 13 ft, 4 inch (4.06 m) Hamilton Standard Hydromatic three-blade propeller was used. To accommodate a folding wing, the designers considered retracting the main landing gear rearward, but for the chord of wing selected, it was difficult to fit gear struts long enough to provide sufficient clearance for the large propeller. Their solution was an inverted gull wing, the same layout used as Germany's infamous Stuka dive bomber, considerably shortening the length of the main gear legs The "bend" in the wing also permitted the wing and fuselage to meet at the optimum angle for minimizing drag. Offsetting these benefits, the bent wing was more difficult to construct and would weigh more than a straight one.


The 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8 in a Goodyear FG-1 CorsairThe Corsair's aerodynamics were an advancement over contemporary naval fighters. The F4U was the first U.S. Navy airplane to feature landing gear that retracted fully, exactly in the manner of the Curtiss P-40 in rotating through 90° during retraction with the wheel atop the lower end of the strut, leaving a completely streamlined wing. Air intakes used slots in the leading edges of the wings rather than protruding scoops. Panels were attached with flush rivets, and the design took advantage of the newly-developed technique of spot welding. While employing this new technology, the Corsair was also the last American-produced fighter aircraft to feature fabric covered control surfaces, which were used for the top and bottom of each outer wing and the elevator surfaces. (The later Boeing B-29 bomber used a fabric-covered rudder.) Even with its streamlining and high speed abilities, with full flap deployment of 60 degrees the Corsair could fly slowly enough for carrier landings.

In part because of its advances in technology and a top speed greater than existing Navy aircraft, numerous technical problems had to be solved before the Corsair would enter service. Carrier suitability was a major development issue, prompting changes to the main landing gear, tail wheel and tailhook. Early prototypes had difficulty recovering from developed spins, since the inverted gull wing's shape interfered with elevator authority. A small spoiler was added to the leading edge of the starboard wing to reduce adverse stall characteristics.

Underside of a Corsair The combination of an aft cockpit and the Corsair's long nose made landings hazardous for newly-trained pilots. The cockpit position in the prototype was 36 in (91 cm) further forward, but a desire for more powerful armament necessitated changes. Putting three 50 caliber guns in each outer wing panel eliminated fuel tanks there, and the fuselage tank above the wings was enlarged to compensate.[10] This required that the seat be moved rearward, behind the tank, an arrangement used in other piston fighters of the era. Because the more docile, and simpler to build, F6F Hellcat was coming into service, Corsair deployment aboard U.S. carriers could be delayed. Following Vought modifications to the landing gear, repositioning of the seat, addition of the stall block to the starboard wing, and after a landing technique using a curving approach was developed by the British Royal Navy that kept the LSO (landing signal officer) in view while coming aboard, Corsairs entered U.S. carrier service toward the end of 1944.




Operational history

United States Navy and Marine Corps

In February 1938, the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics published two requests for proposal, for twin-engined and single-engined fighters. For the single-engined fighter the Navy requested the maximum obtainable speed, and a stalling speed not higher than 70 mph (113 km/h). A range of 1,000 miles (1,610 km) was specified. The fighter had to carry four guns, or three with increased ammunition. Provision had to be made for anti-aircraft bombs to be carried in the wing. These small bombs would, according to thinking in the 1930s, be dropped on enemy aircraft formations.

In June 1938, the USN signed a contract for a prototype, the XF4U-1, BuNo 1443. After mock-up inspection in February 1939 construction of the XF4U-1 powered by an XR-2800-4 engine, rated at 1,805 hp (1,350 kW) went ahead quickly. The first flight of the XF4U-1 was made on 29 May 1940, with Lyman A. Bullard Jr. at the controls. The maiden flight was eventful; a hurried landing was made when the elevator trim tabs failed because of flutter.

On 1 October, the XF4U-1 made a flight from Stratford to Hartford with an average ground speed of 405 mph (650 km/h), the first U.S. fighter to fly faster than 400 mph (640 km/h). The XF4U-1 also had an excellent rate of climb. On the other hand, the testing of the XF4U-1 revealed some requirements would have to be rewritten. In full-power dive tests, speeds of up to 550 mph (885 km/h) were achieved, not without damage to the control surfaces and access panels, and, in one case, an engine failure. The spin recovery standards also had to be relaxed, as recovery from the required two-turn spin proved impossible without recourse to an anti-spin chute. The problems clearly meant delays in getting the type into production.

Reports coming back from the war in Europe indicated that an armament of two .30 caliber (7.62 mm) and two .50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns was insufficient, and so when the U.S. Navy asked for production proposals in November 1940, heavier armament was specified. The Navy entered into a letter of intent on 3 March 1941, received Vought's production proposal on 2 April, and awarded Vought a contract for 584 F4U-1 fighters on 30 June of the same year. On 25 June 1942 Boone Guyton flew the production F4U-1 on its maiden flight. Brewster and Goodyear were already tooling up to join the Corsair production program, having been selected in late 1941 as additional contractors for the aircraft.


Corsair losses in World War II were as follows:

By combat: 189
By enemy anti-aircraft artillery: 349
Accidents during combat missions: 230
Accidents during non-combat flights: 692
Destroyed aboard ships or on the ground: 164

One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R.R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely. He was awarded the Navy Cross.


Korean War

During the Korean War, the Corsair was used mostly in the close-support role. The AU-1 Corsair was a ground-attack version produced for the Korean War; its Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine, while supercharged, was not as highly "blown" as on the F4U. As the Corsair moved from its air superiority role in World War II into the close air support role in the Korean Conflict, the gull wing proved to be a useful feature. A straight, low-wing design would have blocked most of the visibility from the cockpit toward the ground while in level flight, but a Corsair pilot could look through a "notch" and get a better ground reference without having to bank one way or the other to move the wing out of the way.

The AU-1, F4U-4B, -4C, -4P, and -5N logged combat in Korea between 1950 and 1953. There were dogfights between F4Us and Soviet-built Yakovlev Yak-9 fighters early in the conflict, but when the enemy introduced the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, the Corsair was outmatched, though one Marine pilot did get lucky. On 10 September 1952, a MiG-15 made the mistake of getting into a turning contest with a Corsair piloted by Captain Jesse G. Folmar, with Folmar shooting the MiG down with his four 20 millimeter cannon. The MiG's wingmen quickly had their revenge, shooting down Folmar, though he bailed out and was swiftly rescued with little injury.

Corsair night fighters were used to an extent. The enemy adopted the tactic of using low-and-slow Polikarpov Po-2 intruders to perform night harassment strikes on American forces, and jet-powered night fighters found catching these "Bedcheck Charlies" troublesome. U.S. Navy F4U-5Ns were posted to shore bases to hunt them down, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Guy Pierre Bordelon, Jr. becoming the Navys only ace in the conflict, as well as the only ace to not score any victories in a jet plane.

More generally, Corsairs performed attacks with cannon, napalm tanks, various iron bombs and unguided rockets. The old HVAR was a reliable standby, however sturdy Soviet-built armor proved resistant to the HVAR's punch leading to a new 6.5 in (16.5 cm) hollow-charge antitank warhead being developed. The result was called the "Anti-Tank Aircraft Rocket." The big 11.75 inch (29.8 cm) Tiny Tim was also used in combat, with two under the belly.[44] There is a story of a Corsair pilot who cut enemy communications lines by snagging them with his arresting hook.

Lieutenant Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., flying with naval squadron VF-32 off the USS Leyte, was awarded the Medal of Honor for crash landing his Corsair in an attempt to rescue his squadron mate, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, whose aircraft had been forced down by antiaircraft fire near Changjin.


Royal Navy
FAA introduced the Corsair into carrier service before the USN. British units solved the landing visibility problem by approaching the carrier in a medium left-hand turn, which allowed the pilot to keep the carrier's deck in view over the dip in the port wing, allowing safe carrier operations.

In the early days of the war, RN fighter requirements had been based on cumbersome two-seat designs, such as the Blackburn Skua, Fairey Fulmar, and Fairey Firefly, on the assumption they would only be fighting long range bombers or flying boats. The RN hurriedly adopted higher performance but less robust types derived from land based aircraft, such as the Supermarine Seafire. The Corsair was welcomed as a much more robust and versatile alternative.

In Royal Navy service, many Corsairs had their outer wings clipped to assist with carrier storage as well as benefitting its low-altitude performance Despite the clipped wings and the shorter decks of British carriers, RN aviators found landing accidents less of a problem than they had been to USN aviators due to the curved approach used. RN Corsairs saw widespread service with the British Pacific Fleet from late 1944 until the end of the war, some six carrier-based squadrons flying intensive ground attack/interdiction operations and also claiming 47.5 aircraft shot down.

The Royal Navy received 95 Corsair Mk Is and 510 Mk IIs, these being equivalent to the F4U-1 and -1A. Goodyear-built aircraft were known as Mk IIIs (equivalent to FG-1D), and Brewster-built aircraft as Mk IVs (equivalent to F3A-1D). British Corsairs had their wing tips clipped, 20 cm being removed at the tips, to allow storage of the F4U on the lower-overhead British carriers. The Royal Navy was the first to clear the F4U for carrier operations. It proved the Corsair Mk II could be operated with reasonable success even from escort carriers. It was not without problems, one being excessive wear of the arrester wires due to the weight of the Corsair and the understandable tendency of the pilots to stay well above the stalling speed.

Fleet Air Arm units were created and equipped in the US, at Quonset Point or Brunswick and then shipped to war theaters aboard escort carriers. The first FAA Corsair unit was No. 1830, created on the first of June 1943, and soon operating from HMS Illustrious. At the end of the war, 19 FAA squadrons were operating with the Corsair. British Corsairs operated both in Europe and in the Pacific. The first, and also most important, European operations were the series of attacks in April, July and August 1944 on the German battleship Tirpitz, for which Corsairs from HMS Victorious and HMS Formidable provided fighter cover. It appears the Corsairs did not encounter aerial opposition on these raids.

FAA Corsairs originally fought in a camouflage scheme with a Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey disruptive pattern on top and Sky undersides, but were later painted overall dark blue. Those operating in the Pacific theater acquired a specialized British insignia - a modified blue-white roundel with white "bars" to make it look more like a U.S. than a Japanese Hinomaru insignia to prevent friendly-fire incidents. A total of 2,012 Corsairs were supplied to the United Kingdom.

In the Pacific, FAA Corsairs began to operate in April 1944, participating in an attack on Sabang, and later in the attack on oil refineries at Palembang. In July and August 1945, Corsair squadrons Nos. 1834, 1836, 1841, and 1842 took part in a series of strikes on the Japanese mainland, near Tokyo. They operated from the carriers HMS Victorious and Formidable.

At least one Corsair was captured by the Germans, this was Corsair JT404 from No. 1841 squadron (HMS Formidable). Wing Leader Lt Cdr RS Baker-Falkner made an emergency landing on 18 July 1944 in a field at Sorvag, near Bodø, Norway. The Corsair was captured intact and it is not known if it was taken to Germany.

On 9 August 1945, days before the end of the war, FAA Corsairs from Formidable were attacking Shiogama harbor on the northeast coast of Japan. Royal Canadian Navy pilot, Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, was hit by flak but pressed home his attack on a Japanese destroyer, sinking it with a 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) bomb but crashing into the sea. He was posthumously awarded Canada's last Victoria Cross, becoming the second fighter pilot of the war to earn a VC as well as the final Canadian casualty of the Second World War.


Royal New Zealand Air Force

Equipped with obsolescent Curtiss P-40s, RNZAF squadrons in the South Pacific performed impressively compared to the American units they operated alongside, in particular in the air-to-air role. The American government accordingly decided to give New Zealand early access to the Corsair, especially as it was not initially being used from carriers. Some 424 Corsairs equipped 13 RNZAF squadrons, including No. 14 Squadron RNZAF and No. 15 Squadron RNZAF, replacing SBD Dauntless as well as P-40s.

In late 1944, the F4U equipped all twelve Pacific-based fighter units of the RNZAF The first squadrons to use the Corsair were Nos 20 and 21 Squadrons on Espiritu Santo island, operational in May 1944. In the RNZAF Corsair units, only the pilots and a small staff belonged to the squadron; aircraft and maintenance crew were grouped in a pool.

By the time the Corsairs arrived, there were virtually no Japanese aircraft left in New Zealand's allocated sectors of the Southern Pacific, and despite the RNZAF Squadrons extending their operations to more northern islands, they were primarily used for close support of American, Australian and New Zealander soldiers fighting the Japanese. New Zealander pilots were aware of the Corsair's poor forward view and tendency to ground loop, but found these drawbacks could be solved by pilot training in curved approaches before use from rough forward airbases.

The RNZAF Corsairs mainly flew close-support missions, and as a consequence did not claim a single enemy aircraft shot down. At the end of 1945, all Corsair squadrons but one (No. 14) were disbanded. That last squadron was based in Japan, until the Corsair was retired from service in 1947.

No. 14 Squadron took its Corsairs to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Only one airworthy example of the 424 aircraft procured survives: NZ5648/ZK-COR, owned by the Old Stick and Rudder Company at Masterton, NZ. One other mostly complete aircraft and the remains of two others were known to be held by a private collector at Ardmore, NZ, in 1996. Their current whereabouts are unknown.


French Navy
A total of 94 F4U-7s were built for the French Navy in 1952, with the last of the batch, the final Corsair built, rolled out on December 24, 1952. The F4U-7s were actually purchased by the U.S. Navy and passed on to the Aeronavale through the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). The French used their F4U-7s during the end of the First Indochina War in the 1950s, where they were supplemented by at least 25 ex-USMC AU-1s passed on to the French in 1954, after the end of the Korean War.

French Corsairs also performed strikes in the Algerian War in 1955 and 1956 and assisted in the Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the Suez Canal in October 1956, codenamed Operation Musketeer. The Corsairs were painted with yellow and black recognition stripes for this operation. In 1960, some French Corsairs were rigged to carry four SS-11 wire-guided missiles. This was a more or less experimental fit and it is hard to believe it worked well, since it required a pilot to "fly" the missile after launch with a joystick while keeping track of a flare on its tail – an exercise that could be very tricky in a single-seat aircraft under combat conditions. All French Corsairs were out of service by 1964, with some surviving for museum display or as civilian warbirds.

The "Football War"
Corsairs flew their final combat missions during the 1969 "Football War" between Honduras and El Salvador. The conflict was famously triggered, though not really caused, by a disagreement over a football (soccer) match. Both sides claimed various numbers of kills, and each side disputed the claims of the other.


Legacy
The Corsair entered service in 1942. Although designed as a carrier fighter, initial operation from carrier decks proved to be troublesome. Its low-speed handling was tricky due to the port wing stalling before the starboard 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. For these reasons, most Corsairs initially went to Marine Corps squadrons who operated off land-based runways, with some early Goodyear built examples (designated FG-1A) being built with fixed, non-folding wings. The USMC aviators welcomed the Corsair with open arms as its performance was far superior to the contemporary Brewster Buffalo and Grumman F4F-3 and -4 Wildcat.

Moreover, the Corsair was able to outperform the primary Japanese fighter, the Mitsubishi A6M "Zero". While the Zero could out-turn the F4U at low speed, the Corsair was faster and could out-climb and out-dive the A6M. Tactics developed early in the war, such as the Thach Weave, took advantage of the Corsair's strengths.

This performance advantage, combined with the ability to take severe punishment, meant a pilot could place an enemy aircraft in the killing zone from the F4U's six .50 (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns and keep him there long enough to inflict major damage. The 2,300 rounds carried by the Corsair gave over one full minute of fire from each gun, which, fired in three to six-second bursts, made the F4U a devastating weapon against aircraft, ground targets, and even ships.

Beginning in 1943, the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) also received Corsairs and flew them successfully from Royal Navy carriers in combat with the British Pacific Fleet and in Norway. These were clipped-wing Corsairs, the wingtips shortened eight inches (20 cm) to clear the lower overhead height of RN carriers. FAA also developed a curving landing approach to overcome the F4U's deficiencies.

Corsairs served with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, Fleet Air Arm, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, as well the French Aeronavale and other services postwar. It quickly became the most capable carrier-based fighter-bomber of World War II. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear (as the FG-1) and Brewster (as the F3A-1). From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured by Vought,in 16 separate models.

Infantrymen nicknamed the Corsair "The Sweetheart of the Marianas" and "The Angel of Okinawa" for its roles in these campaigns. Among Navy and Marine aviators, however, the aircraft was nicknamed "Ensign Eliminator" and "Bent-Wing Eliminator" because it required many more hours of flight training to master than other Navy carrier-borne aircraft. It was also called simply "U-bird" or "Bent Wing Bird". The Japanese allegedly nicknamed it "Whistling Death", for the noise made by airflow through the wing root-mounted oil cooler air intakes.

The Corsair has been named the official aircraft of Connecticut, due to its connection with Sikorsky Aircraft, in legislation sponsored by state senator George "Doc" Gunther; Gunther had also organized a Corsair Celebration and Symposium at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut, on Memorial Day, 29 May 2006.

Independence Day

The post is a bit late, earlier last week I finally got the Blue ID card and my status as a full citizen back again. I have no reservations for serving my country for 20 years. I enjoyed most times, loathed some others and generally feel that my small contribution made a difference.

Overall, I was one of the Crew..
I didn't do anything that warrant's a medal, parade, or anything above a footnote in history. Other than I was there and I served.

I gladly did the job, stood the watches and what ever was asked of me.

I take pride that I was a strand in the long line that makes up the history of our Navy and our country.

I hope all enjoy the Holiday and the price other's have paid for us to celebrate it.

Nereus.

A note for Comments by reader's

I have had to turn the comment moderation on recently. This is due to recent post's that have been commented on by trolls who post "Get rich quick" schemes and other flotsam that has come to pollute the Internet.

I will post all comments made by reader's with any opinion other than adding to the cheapness and dead weight of the Internet.
So, if your comment isn't available instantly, It is because I have taken the time to filter out the bot's, tweaks, and other ilk that have raised the noise ratio of being online.

Nereus.