Then Major "Pappy" Boyinton won His Medal of Honor flying one of these. His "Black Sheep" Squadron was made famous by their combat record in the Pacific during WW2.

BTW, #29 was piloted by Ira Kepford, who finished the war with 16 kills and 1 unconfirmed.

Ira Cassius Kepford was born on 29 May 1919 in Harvey, Illinois, son of George Raymond and Emma McLaughlin Kepford. He was a star halfback at North-western University, where he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1941. He was honorably discharged from the Reserve on 29 April 1942, and accepted an appointment as a Naval Aviation Cadet.

Kepford earned his wings at Corpus Christi, Texas and Miami, Florida on 5 November 1942, and was assigned to Fighting-17 the following January. In the Battle of the Solomon Sea, Kepford pressed through blistering AAA fire from the Bunker Hill to down four enemy aircraft and damage a fifth, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross.

On 29 January, Kepford led his wingman in an attack on 12 Japanese fighters over Rabaul; he scored four kills, and was awarded a Gold Star, for this action.

While returning to base on 19 February 1944, Kepford spotted a low Japanese seaplane. Although he was alone (his wingman was forced to abort earlier, and Kepford was retained to cover bombers on-route to Rabaul), Kepford dived down and flamed the plane. He was then attacked by a flight of three Zekes, which dived onto him with a massive altitude advantage. Kepford took full advantage of the newly-installed water injection WEP to stretch out the chase, but the Zekes' energy advantage allowed them to slowly narrow the gap. As the lead Zeke opened fire, Kepford decided to "go for broke." He dropped his flaps and landing gear and nosed down until he was skimming the waves; as the Zeke roared over him, he pulled his Hog's nose up and opened fire. The Zeke's stabilizer crumpled under the snapshot, and the plane crashed into the waves. As Kepford pulled in his gear and flaps, the remaining two Zekes bracketed him . . . he was facing 2-to-1 odds, low and slow, and he was heading back in the direction of Rabaul. Kepford ran his throttle as far open as possible, and after gaining some speed he cut across the path of the port Zeke. The Japanese plane dropped to wave top level, opened fire, and sharply turned to fall onto his six . . . at which point the Zeke's left wing caught a wave top, and the plane cart wheeled across the ocean surface, disintegrated, and sank. The third Zeke was left behind as Kepford dashed for home, landing on fumes in his fuel tank.

And another one...

Ira Cassius Kepford is well known as the US Navy's most successful Corsair pilot with a total of 16 confirmed air to air victories. He is depicted here at the beginning of his illustrious career in The Battle of the Solomon Sea. In this battle he shot down a Japanese "Kate" torpedo bomber a mere 1000 yards from the carrier Bunker Hill just fractions of a second before the enemy bomber could release it's deadly load. Simultaneously a Japanese Zero was attempting to remove Ira from action but was eliminated by a Navy Hellcat. Although low on fuel Ira continued through the intense anti-aircraft fire from the Bunker Hill and it's escorts and went on to shoot down 3 more Japanese aircraft within minutes before running out of ammunition. For this day's actions he was awarded the Navy Cross. Ira Kepford is shown here in the VF17 - "Jolly Rogers" Colors flying his Vought F4U

Thanks for sharing. I love seeing pics. and stories about the Corsair's in action. The Uncle I was named for was a Marine Corps pilot. Uncle Donald flew a Corsair in the Pacific. He didn't come home. I've always felt a special connection to the Corsair and enjoy a special feeling putting my hands on one at air shows, etc.

Brian,

That was when the US was warlike and belicose. Now, everything is different. We will change our national anthem to "I'd like to teach the world to sing" and no longer build such instruments of death and destruction. We will convert NASA to a Muslim outreach organization. We will only be exceptional in that we will invite other countries to step all over us and pay them to do so - with money we borrow from China and cannot repay.

We would never again build such aircraft. They make it an munfair fight and we sould never want to be unfair.

shot410ga,

That would be "whistling death" and not whispering death. The reason for the nickname as that was the last thing the Japanese pilot would hear before being shot out of the sky. The whistling sound came from the air passing through the oil coolers in the root of the wings when the Corsair was diving in for the kill.

It was also the first American fighter plane to be capable of 400+mph in level flight. The P-47, which used the same P&W R2800 engine, could do this speed in a dive but not in level flight.

The Corsair was a "pilot's" plane and in capable hands had no equal in a dog fight in WWII. As a P-51 pilot once told me, "Don't ever get in a turning contest with one as it is a no win situation". The P-51's only advantage was slightly faster speed.

ss

I went to the Planes of Fame Air Show and took a couple of picture of this Corsair, didnt know the signifigance of it till now.

Thanks guys, I really enjoyed this thread.

Just saw one fly at the Punta Gorda, Fl. Air Show a little over a month ago.

I don't know why but when I read stories like the ones told above or I watch World at War on the Hist Channel it brings tears to my eyes.

Darr Wilson

I love WWII planes. I wish I would have jumped out of a B-17.

I believe Ted Williams flew a Corsair as a Marine pilot at the end of WWII. Although scheduled for Pacific theater duty the war ended before he was deployed. He did however, see action in Korea flying a F9F Panther jet. His baseball career was interrupted twice due to military service.. He was quite a man...

My grandad started in Boeing P-12E guarding the Panama Canal..he also flew for/with Claire Chennault before going into the Pacific Theatre..then moved onto P-40 Warhawks and then P-38 Lightnings and crossed over to B-29s which he flew until retirement...he always said the one plane he really would have loved to had the chance to fly was the Corsair...heres a pic of some of his flying badges

Sorry about your uncle Don...this country owes so much to both those of the greatest generation who made it home and even more to those who didn't..I was lucky my one grandad was one of the lucky ones..my other grandad and two uncles were not

The Corsair was/is a beautiful plane but not as pretty IMO as the Spitfire or Bf 109E. And as far as "having no equal in a dogfight" I'd hate to see it in air-to-air combat with either a Bf109G or FW 190 with a "capable pilot". Our pilots had it pretty gravy compared to the German pilots. You weren't considered an Expert until sometimes after shooting down 100 planes. Take a look at the record book who the highest scoring Aces of WW2 were and they were all German.

By the time our boys got into the airfight with the Germans, the Germans had already logged many, many hours of air combat already. You might say that the Germans had twice the years in air combat as our guys. That may be a reason for the so called German aces.

Not sure I'd call any combat mission "gravy"!

Robin Olds was a triple ace in the P-38J, P-51, and F4C. 12 confirmed kills in WWII half 109's and the rest 190's. After 3 Mig 21 kills and 1 Mig 17 kill in SEA he refused to take credit for any more kills knowing he would be sent home if he got his fifth. Rumor is he did! He remained Commander of the 8th TFW until his normal rotation date. Don't think many German aces would have wished to engage him. The definition of a Fighter Pilot along with quit a few others in WWII and Korea. BTW. One of his WWII kills in the P-38 was with his engines shut down due to fuel starvation. After the engagement he restarted both.

Guys, I didn't mean any disrespect to our flying men. I've just always loved reading the stories of the German fighter pilots. Get-er-done was right in that in the Luftwaffe you served basically until you were dead or received the diamonds from AH (still many pilots continued to fly). If you read the numbers I think all the pilots in the 200-300 plus club are all German. It can be argued that those pilots that served on the Eastern front faced a weaker adversary and were able to rack up some high scores but the same could be said of the pacific theatre. Most of Japan's good pilots were lost early in the war.

What a great thread. Many years ago (1957) I was in Quantico Virginia in the PLC program (lost 50 lbs in 12 weeks). We were in a squad bay near the air station and I saw the last 6 Marine Corps Corsairs take off to go into storage. Never forgot it. I always wanted to fly one of those or even the AD. Those planes with the monster radial engines were something else. The closest I got were T-28 B's and C's in training. They had R 1820 86's not bad though.

Just a FYI..my pics of my Gramps pins and such...the first photo and the pin in the right lower side (small round one with the blue strip) was his 20yr pin from Glenn L Martin Aircraft where he was a Aeronautics Engineer (Avionics development and test pilot)..he was a cool old guy and I wish he was still alive as I'd have a ton of questions to tug at his ear with. He rolled his eyes when I joined the Navy as he was Air Corp/AirForce all the way

Ok, now let's talk about those p-38's in the pacific and those fantastic AAF pilots that flew them..

I am not objective, but I think the Corsair is indeed the greatest fighter of WW 2. The Corsair was designed and built by Chance Vought Aircraft in Stratford Conn. Rex Biesel was the Project Manager, Paul Baker was the aerodynamic engineer and my Dad was the power plant engineer. Some of my earliest memories are going out to the Vought plant in Stratford and seeing Corsairs lined up as far as one could see.

While a great plane, the original carrier landings did not go well.The pilots could not see over the long front cowl to line up with the flight deck,so Corsair became a Marine land based plane in the Pacific. Eventually a brave Naval Aviator developed a technique of approaching the carrier in a turning pattern and thereby ligning up with the flight deck.

I remeber my Dad talking about trying to get the plane to fly 500mph, of course it never did,but I think it reached about 450.

Unfortunately my Dad died at a young age, but Paul Baker lived here in Virginia until well in to his 90s.His stories were amazing.

We think of the greatest generation perhaps as the military heroes of WW2 and indeed they were. However American engineering and production achievement were remarkable and enabled us to be the arsenal of democracy and preserve freedom.

Thanks for the photographs

They brought back some great memories.

Jim Shoemaker

The two top American Aces of WWII flew P-38's. The guys that figured out how to manuever using throttle differentials really took a toll on enemy planes.

ss

I was lucky, I got my pilot license in the early to mid 70s. I got the chance to meet a lot of old WWII pilots and pilots recently back from Viet Nam. Everyone I met thought the plane they flew was the best. You gotta have that attiude, I guess.

Met a guy who flew off the "Big E" who swore by the F6F Hellcat. Another guy flew in Europe who claimed the P47 Thunderbolt could do anything any other plane could do and absorb three times the battle damage as the others and still survive. The Mustang and P38 pilots thought they were flying the best too.

Know how you can pick a Corsair pilot out of a bar full of pilots? Just walk down the line of bar stools and thump everybody on the right leg. A Corsair pilots leg will have a feel and sound as if you were hitting an oak tree. It took a lot of leg strenght to stand on that right rudder when taking off. That large prop and motor produced a lot of torque.

My Dad was a 40 mm anti air craft gunner on the Battleship USS Texas,as a kid growing up he always told me about the beautiful F4U Corsairs. A couple years ago I took my dad to Texas for a Navy Reunion on the USS Texas. I heard a story how when they were at Okinawa and were firing on this kamikaze plane, that was determined to crash into the Texas, this Marine pilot dove his F4U Corsair right into all the anti-aircraft fire and shot a wing off the Jap plane. Dad and a couple other Veterans said the the F4U flew fight over the #2 14inch gun turret waving his wings. Dad told me that was the bravest son of a bitch he ever saw. Now I know why he always thought they were so beautiful. Jeff

Shot410...the Japs called the F4U Whistling Death. My dad was the CIC officer who vectored the aircraft of VMF 323 (Death Rattlers) off the USS Badoeng Strait, CVE 116. After the war, we lived in El Cajon, Calif with a majority of the aviators as neighbors. These young Marines were some of the finest people I ever knew and were a big part of my decision to join the Marine Corps.

Mooney-Glenn Wedding

Half Mile, We changed our name form "Confederate Air Force" to "Commemorative Air Force" back in 2002. Some members thought "Confederate" was confusing and didn't reflect our primary purpose. And some thought it hampered our fundraising efforts. And still a lot of members felt it mearly a politicaly correct move. But the offical CAF reason was the word "confederate" was offensive to some people. It pissed off a lot of long time members many of whom left. It's a politialy correct world in which we live. You can't say sh*t, even if you have a mouth full.

Cheers,

George

G550, Robin Olds(God Rest his soul) was a colorful character! He is the one who battled the brass about Air Combat in Vietnam. They thought the days of Dog Fights were over and Fighters only needed missles. He proved them wrong and brought back the art of Dog Fighting in air Combat! He pulled off one of the greatest tricks of the war on the NV Air Force. The North Vietnamese pilots were controled by radar controllers and would gang up to attack the F-105 groups on their way to bomb Hanoi. Olds rigged up some jammer pods to mimic F-105 gear and he and his F-4 boys used a lot of F-105 jarjon and chatter on the radio as they headed into NV air space. The trap worked and the NV pilots (thinking they were attacking a group of bomb ladden F-105s) were horrified to learn they had flewn into an Air Force Air Combat Fighter group! It is estimated that 1/3 of the North's Mig 21 fleet was destroyed that day!

Can someone explain the difference of, why we changed to and the benefits between the "rotary" and "radial" engines in airplanes? Would be interesting for us young folk. ;)

The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. This configuration was very commonly used in large aircraft engines before most large aircraft started using turbine engines. In a radial engine, the pistons are connected to the crankshaft with a master-and-articulating-rod assembly. One piston, has a master rod with a direct attachment to the crankshaft. The remaining pistons pin their connecting rods attachments to cam rings around the edge of the master rod. Four-stroke radials always have an odd number of cylinders per row, so that a consistent every-other-piston firing order can be maintained, providing smooth operation. This is achieved by the engine taking two revolutions of the crankshaft to complete the four strokes, (intake, compression, power, exhaust), which means the firing order is 1,3,5,7,9,2,4,6,8 and back to cylinder 1 again. This means that there is always a two-piston gap between the piston on its power stroke and the next piston to fire (i.e., the piston on compression). Most radial engines use overhead popet valves driven by lifters and push rods on a cam plate, which is concentric with the crankshaft.-- Opposed piston engines work like automoive engines ,although like radials they are mostly air cooled. They have opposed pistons which face opposite each other and like automotive engines transfer linear motion into rotorary motion via a crankshaft.--The Radials produced more power,but, were very bulky, and added much more weight. Today the larger Aircraft are nearly all powered by turbine engines. Either by a propeller,which is driven through a gear box connected to the front of the engine,or by "direct thrust" from the turbine engines powerful exaust.

Bigdogtx, Are you asking the difference between a rotary and a radial aircraft engine? A radial engine has the crankcase and cylinders remain stationary and are mounted to the firewall of the aircraft. The propeller is attached to the crankshaft. On a rotary engine it is the opposite. The crankshaft is mounted to the firewall and the propeller is attached to the crankcase and cylinders. In a rotary engine the cylinders spin with the propeller. The rotaries that I have seen did not really have any throttle control. The pilot controlled the engine rpm momentarily killing the ignition. Now the Wankel style rotary engines as in the Mazda RX7 is a totally different animal.