Both aircraft were impressive fighters (though the F6F Hellcat shot down more enemy aircraft than the Corsair did). Is there any factual data as to which was the better fighter, which was more ‘badass’? Given pilots of equal skill, which would prevail in a fight?
The P-51 and F4U actually fought each other.
Here is another (PDF) account of that little conflict, written by one of the pilots - Chuck Lyford of Seattle hydro fame. He bought his first P-51 at age 19 while in college, figuring he already knew how to work on the engine (from his hydro experience).
Stats aren’t everything, but would the published information in a Jane’s at least give some hints? I don’t have a copy of the WWII book, but someone here or a library might.
A quick check of wiki seems to indicate that the P51s in Europe had a 2:1 kill ratio, shooting down 4950 enemy aircraft while losing 2520 of their own. The F4U in naval service racked up an 11:1 kill ratio.
Different wars, different opposition.
The article says that ‘Honduras boasted the more impressive and better established air force.’ It says that El Salvador’s Corsairs were ‘worn out and all but decommissioned.’ It makes me wonder about the training and abilities of the Salvadoran pilots. When the Honduran pilot says it was ‘real, real easy’ to turn inside of the Salvadoran Mustangs, was it because the Corsair was a superior aircraft? Or was Captain Soto a superior pilot?
Corsairs shot down 2,140 enemy aircraft in WWII. (Actually 2,139. A Betty was sawn down with the Corsair’s massive propeller when the pilot ran out of ammo or his guns malfunctioned.) 189 Corsairs were lost in aerial combat, and 1,400 were ‘1,400 Corsairs were lost due to other causes (349 to enemy AA, 164 to landing accidents). Roughly one in 300 landings resulted in loss or damage of the aircraft (this was not unusual for WWII aircraft).’
Poking around on google, I did find some sites saying that the Corsair was slightly more maneuverable and had a tighter turn radius. No cite given for the info, though. If it’s true, then the Corsair would win in a turning game.
The Mustang had a higher top speed, so with different tactics it could end up having the advantage.
According to the specs on Wikipedia, the Mustang (P-51D) had a top speed of 383 knots, and the Corsair (F4U-4) had a top speed of 388 knots. So top speeds are about equal. The P-51D’s cruise speed was 315 knots and the F4U-4’s cruise speed was not listed. Poking around, as you say, the Corsair’s cruise speed was much lower. But I don’t think cruise speed is the factor in a dogfight. The F4U-4 had a 2,380 hp engine, and the P-51D had 1,720 hp ‘war emergency power’. ISTM that the Corsair has the edge here.
I know there are Mustangs still flying, what about Corsairs? Maybe they could meet up at an airshow someplace for a mock dogfight.
According to the Wiki page on the Corsair, there are 45 privately-owned Corsairs in the U.S. Worldwide Wiki lists 35 airworthy Corsairs, 7 under restoration (‘for display’ not specified), 4 being restored for display, and 15 under restoration to airworthiness. Additionally, there are 20 ‘on display’. So copying the spreadsheet into Excel, I see 81 surviving examples with 35 airworthy now and 50 total airworthy eventually.
Incidentally, if you can’t afford 4.1 megabucks for a Corsair (almost twice as much as a Mustang – there’s one for $4.5 million in original condition that comes with 20 Merlin engines and 6 to 8 semitrailer loads of parts including the engines), there’s a mostly-completed W.A.R. 50% scale Corsair on eBay right now with a current bid of $305. ‘WAR Corsair project. On gear. Retract gear tested and working. Needs a gear drive motor. With canopy. Have most of the drawings. Needs some minor wood work and ready for foam and glass.’
The Mustang was built for long range support. This meant there were tradeoffs not faced by the Corsair which had a smaller turning radius and greater accceleration. The Corsair was likely a better dogfighter.
The Corsair was designed for combat at lower altitudes. I’d give it the edge there, and the Mustang the edge higher up.
The Corsair was designed to land and take off from a carrier, unlike a Mustang.
The P-51 loss number is to all causes, the majority of which were to AA and operational (mechanical, flying accidents etc). The F4U one is calculated based on only losses recorded as due to air combat (only 189).
But it would be apples and oranges even if we found and used the recorded air combat losses of P-51’s. For the reason you said (although there would be a significant additional tally of P-51 victory credits v the Japanese), plus of course the ratio’s have limited validity in absolute terms because claims of enemy a/c shot down in daylight fighter combat were almost always significantly exaggerated, and to widely varying degrees.
The only meaningful comparison would be to find F4U and P-51 combats late in the Pacific War against the same opponents, and where there are Japanese accounts of the combats to know their real losses. There are actually a few. The Japanese Navy 343rd Air Group, often considered the best late-war Japanese fighter unit, met P-51’s three times losing 4, 3 and 1 of their Shiden-kai (‘George’) fighters taken by surprise each time and without downing any P-51’s. In larger combats F4U’s often suffered losses to the 343rd’s Shiden, though generally shot down more Shiden than they lost. Some examples are the raids on Kure March 19, 1945 where the 343rd seems to have downed 13 F6F/F4U for 15 losses of their own, but lost 10 a/c downing only 2 F6F/F4U’s April 12 near Okinawa, probably downed 4 F4U’s for only 2 losses June 2, downed 2 F4U’s for 4 losses June 22, downed 1 F4U for 4 losses July 2, 1 F6F and 3 F4U’s for 6 losses July 24. Similarly the 343rd’s losses generally outnumbered its victories in combats with just F6F’s.
This is still too small a sample to conclude anything solid, but P-51D’s in 1945 burning very octane gas and engines set to very high boost, almost always attacking their opponents in dives from high altitude, were clearly difficult for Japanese fighters to deal with, even Shiden and Type 4 (aka ‘Frank’).
Many Corsairs carried multiple 20mm auto-cannons, & the Mustangs had .50 machine guns, 6 or 8, on model.I’d go with the Corsair, if typical firepower counts.