# Boarding an F4U Corsair **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639 "2021-01-27T20:24:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/61 "2021-10-02T14:53:30Z")
Yeah, the only piston aircraft that get sea level speeds in the mid-400’s and higher are unlimited air racers. Those things are highly modified, with engine horsepower sometimes doubled, canopies chopped down, wngs clipped, etc. The stock warbirds like Corsairs and Mustangs typically run in the low to mid-300’s. An unmodified Corsair ran 313 mph average in a race in 2012. In 2017 another one managed 308 mph around the course. The fastest stock planes tend to include the Mustang, Corsair, Hawker Sea Furies, Bearcats, the odd Yak-11 or Yak-9. Sea Furies and Mustangs are the most common now it seems, probably due more due to the rarity of the other planes. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/62 "2021-10-02T14:58:29Z")
Are those average lap speeds, or top speeds, straight and level? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/63 "2021-10-02T15:12:01Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > in-depth, behind-the-scenes book about _Baa Baa Black Sheep_ Behind the scenes! They only had six mismatched Corsairs and two fake Zeroes to simulate entire squadrons. The combat footage of the show planes got reused more than that in the original Battlestar Galactica. The big revelation: Conrad acted like an asshole. Film at 11! I like the show - I have the DVDs of the 2/3 of the episodes they released, but even at 16 I knew it wasn’t a great show. As a military show, it was more unrealistic than MASH. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/64 "2021-10-03T02:43:45Z")
Yeah as a teenager I liked the show too. Little did I know then that I would end up enlisting in the Marine Corps and serving 13 years. Gunny Bullitt ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/65 "2022-05-23T01:08:35Z")
Bumped, after 7 months. On the Smithsonian channel’s series, “Air Warriors”, it shows a pilot boarding his F4U. It’s not quite the same steps as I saw at PSAM, the Palm Springs Air Museum. I uploaded it to You Tube and it’s about 30-40 seconds. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kgX2z900bkY/maxresdefault.jpg "F4U Corsair pilot ingress") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgX2z900bkY) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/66 "2022-05-23T02:43:12Z")
Not playing for me. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/67 "2022-05-23T05:28:23Z")
What about this one? I got this link from YT as a sharing link [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kgX2z900bkY/maxresdefault.jpg "F4U Corsair pilot ingress") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgX2z900bkY) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/68 "2022-05-23T07:08:19Z")
I’ll try imgur: ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/69 "2022-05-23T08:01:53Z")
The first one worked fine for me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/70 "2022-05-23T13:24:42Z")
Both links worked for me. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/71 "2022-05-23T17:54:35Z")
Thinking of Black Sheep, I recently watched the one with Frank Converse as the Maj Bong-esque AAC pilot of a P38. Watching the P38s fly made me notice how easy it must have been to put a Corsair on its nose during takeoff. That’s a lot of power. And they just let kids fly these things! Amazing. And that doesn’t even take into account the F2G Goodyear Corsairs with the four row radial. That must have been a handful! ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/72 "2022-05-23T18:58:36Z")
Cool, I’d never heard of such a thing, the F2G Super Corsair. Had to look it up. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/F2G-1_Bu88458.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/F2G-1_Bu88458.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/73 "2022-05-23T18:59:56Z")
And here too. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/GoodyearF2G-2.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/GoodyearF2G-2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/74 "2022-05-23T22:17:31Z")
That’s why it was dubbed the “Ensign Eliminator,” especially the early versions. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639/75 "2022-05-24T20:09:39Z")
In Boyington’s autobiography he talked about the torque of the big radial in the Corsair, and how one new Corsair pilot flipped one over on its back by firewalling the throttle at too low a speed on takeoff. He wound up scalping himself in the accident. Corsairs are on the short list for best fighter of WWII. They stayed in use until 1979, when Honduras finally stopped flying them in their air force. Corsairs even fought against Migs in Korea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boarding-an-f4u-corsair/931639.md?page=3)