F4U Corsairs (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

A pair of F4U Corsair naval fighters in formation at the 2008 Chino airshow.

Powered by a 2000 horsepower R-2800 radial engine driving a huge 13 foot 4 inch propeller, the Corsair was the first American fighter capable of flying at more than 400 mph in level flight.   The propeller was so large that the designers had to incorporate an inverted gull-wing, leading to the nickname "bent wing bird".   Nevertheless, the Corsair was considerably faster than the F6F Hellcat, which used the same engine.

The long nose of the Corsair made it difficult to see forward well enough to land on aircraft carriers, so it was initially used by theUnited States Marine Corps and the Royal New Zealand Air Forcefrom land bases.   The Royal Navy eventually solved the carrier landing problems by raising the seat seven inches, fitting a curved canopy called the Malcolm Hood (seen on these two Corsairs), and flying a curved approach to the carrier, which allowed the pilot to keep the deck in sight until the last moment.  This allowed the British to use the Corsair on carriers from the middle of 1943, almost a year before the US Navy started operating them.