CORSAIR F4U-4 Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W Engine CFS3 - V2.85.07 AvHistory 1% Aircraft General Statement and Installation Instructions It is the intention of the AvHistory 1% project to over time build the most accurate aircraft that the CFS3 software can support. The development of a 1% aircraft requires specific and in many cases dramatic changes to the aircraft delivered with the MS game as well as the addition of aircraft built from the ground up by third parties which were never included in the original MS game. We believe that because the AvHistory 1% aircraft are materially different they should not be mixed with "box stock" aircraft in online combat. All the planes 1% listed for download are qualified for use in our AvHistory William Tell Meet Air Combat Ladder. For information and to get the sign up sheet for the ladder please go to the LINKS section at http://www.avhistory.org No AvHistory 1% aircraft maybe provided for download from any site without express written consent of AvHistory. Additionally, direct linking to our download site is forbidden. CORSAIR F4U-4 Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W Engine This aircraft was built by RC-79 using version 2.85.07 of the AvHistory 1% Assembly Line process. It is based on the outstanding F4U-4 visual created by Ed Wilson from Anthony Sullenger's CFS2 version. Dynamic Virtual Cockpit is by Ed Wilson. Turkey Vulture has painted it the livery of MOH winner Keneth Walsh's VMF-222 "White 13" flown during June-1945 at Okanawa Kenneth Walsh is the top Corsair ace, and Medal of Honor recipient. He was shot down three times himself, and was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with six Gold Stars, the Air Medal with 14 Gold Stars, the Presidential Unit Citation with one bronze star, the Army Distinguished Unit Citation with emblem and many others. He served in both WWII and the Korean Conflict. Walsh was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1916. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps to become a radioman and aviation mechanic in 1934. "Join the Marines and Learn to Fly" was the poster that motivated Walsh to join up. Two years later Walsh was selected for flight school. During the late 1930s he flew scout and observation missions from the carriers Yorktown, Wasp, and Ranger. At the time of Pearl Harbor Walsh was serving with Marine Fighting Squadron 121 on the East Coast. He transferred to Marine Fighting Squadron 124 in September 1942. After a handful of flights with the new corsairs VMF-124 was sent to the Pacific to assist with escort duties that the Wildcat was unable to handle. On February 13, VMF-124 embarked on its second mission in as many days of operation. Walsh was in the #13 position, leading the fourth, four-plane element, escorting B-24s up the Slot. Walsh was not superstitious and he regularly flew the #13 position, and the number stuck. On August 30 Walsh attacked up to 50 Japanese Zeroes downing a total of four while flying a replacement Corsair after his had developed engine problems. He had attacked two groups of Zeroes on two different occasions that day, flying alone, defending B-24s before he was eventually forced to ditch due to battle damage off Vella LaVella. In February 1944 Walsh was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic action. During 1944 and early 1945 Walsh was a flight instructor in Jacksonville, Florida at the Naval Air Operational Training Command, Naval Air Station. He later returned to the Pacific in April 1945, serving with VMF-222 as Operations Officer during the Okinawa campaign, once again flying #13, but this time in the new F4U-4 Corsair. Walsh downed his 21st and final Japanese aircraft, a Kamikaze, over north Okinawa on June 22, 1945. Lieutenant Colonel Walsh retired in 1962 after a distinguished career in both World War II and the Korean Conflict. He is the top scoring Corsair ace with 21 victories and 140 combat missions and today resides in Santa Ana, CA. Walsh's corsair was reputedly kept in perfect and polished working order, but this one shows a bit of battle wear and dirt from exhaust and mud around the base. Though the tide had turned against the Japanese by the time the F4U-4 had arrived on the scene you can rise to the skies once again and experience the advantage of what many consider to be one of the finest fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed by Beisel and Sikorsky, the F4U is regarded by many as one of the greatest combat aircraft in history, and was in production for a longer period of time than any US fighter other than the F4 Phantom. As conceived it was intended to mount the most powerful engine, and biggest propeller, of any fighter in existence, and the prototype was the first US combat aircraft to exceed 400mph. However, early experience suggested that the design was in fact a disastrous failure, especially for carrier operations. The extraordinarily long nose interfered with visibility ahead in a way which particularly caused problems during landing and take-off. The undercarriage had a tendency to break, and the aircraft also had an inclination to bounce alarmingly on landing. As a result the US Navy at first rejected it for shipboard operation. Nonetheless the F4U was adopted by the Marine Corps and quickly demonstrated its effectiveness. Although its low rate-of-turn made it a very limited dogfighter its merits more than compensated for this and its other faults. Its great power, speed and rate of climb, its capacity to roll very rapidly, combined with a powerful armament - and large ammunition supply - and a quite exceptional resistance to battle damage, meant that in early 1943 ( in the Solomons) it quickly demonstrated its great superiority over the enemy fighters. By the end of hostilities in the Pacific War it had established an 11:1 "kill" ratio against Japanese aircraft. At a time when the US Navy still considered it unsuitable for carrier use it was provided to the British Fleet Air Arm under Lend-Lease. The British Navy was desperately short of suitable high-performance fighters and therefore persevered with the Corsair, despite its problems, and the Fleet Air Arm's pilots quickly learned to cope with some of the aircraft's idiosyncracies. In any event improved versions, which amongst other things corrected the faults in the undercarriage, were later to became available. The US Navy finally adopted the F4U as a shipboard fighter-bomber in November 1944, and by early 1945 large numbers were operating from the fast carriers of the Pacific Fleet - although the longer-established and very capable Grumman F6F Hellcat remained somewhat more numerous aboard the carriers right up to the war's end. However, while the F6F was phased out shortly after World War Two the Corsair continued in service, and new versions were developed. The F4U was used extensively in the Korean War, and production continued until December 1952, by which time 12,571 had been built. Gramps & Turkry Vulture |