Doug Matthews' Chance F4U-4B Corsair

Doug Matthews and of America are the owners and operators of this beautifully restored Chance Vought F4U-4B Corsair (BuNo 97359), which is available for airshows, flybys and film and is also a member of the Navy Legacy Flight program, one of the most popular airshow aerial displays.

The Chance was the first American fighter to demonstrate air superiority over Japanese aircraft during the Second World War and the most capable of all carrier-based . The F4U model 4B was delivered to the ’s aircraft carriers in June of 1945 just in time for the final push against the Japanese mainland.

Chance Vought, the second oldest aircraft manufacturer having been founded in 1917, designed and built the prototype of the Corsair, a single-seat carrier- Home Base: Palm Beach, FL based fighter which first flew on May 29, 1940. Deliveries to the military started Operation: Western, Central and in July 1942 when they first entered combat from land bases on recaptured Eastern USA Pacific islands and from Allied aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean. Corsairs were Model: F4U-4B the first American fighter to exceed 400 mph. They were soon recognized by the Span: 41' 0" Japanese as a formidable adversary and considered superior to their own best Length: 33' 8" fighters. More than 12,000 Corsairs of various models were built before Height: 14' 9" production ceased in 1952. Max Speed: 446 mph Gross Weight: 14,670 lbs Corsairs have a distinctive and ingenious gull-shaped wing design, which serves Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney R- three purposes. First, it enables the to fold upward which allowed more 2800-18W aircraft to be stored on the flight decks and hangars of the small aircraft carriers Horsepower: 2,100 of the time. Second, the wing design resulted in a shorter and stronger landing Fuel Capacity: 397 gallons gear strut to withstand the tremendous shock loads resulting from carrier Armament: 4 × .20mm landings. Finally, it provided ground clearance for the thirteen-foot diameter, cannons, 8 x 5 inch under wing four bladed . The F4U model 4B was built under the U.S. government’s rockets or up to 4,000 lbs of “Lend-Lease” program for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. bombs.

The F4U-4B was equipped with four 20-mm cannons instead of 50-calibre machine guns (used in the early F4U-4 production) and eight 5-inch rockets under wings or up to 4,000 pounds of bombs on centerline and pylon racks. This made it an ideal platform to provide ground support of troops in the invasion of Japanese held Pacific Islands and also as an air superiority fighter aircraft.

This Corsair was a combat veteran, which flew with VF-44 squadron off the USS Boxer raking up 300 combat hours. During the Korean War, the Corsair was used mostly in the close-support role. As the Corsair moved from its air superiority role in World War II into the role in the Korean Conflict, the 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.