BEST World War II Fighter? | Curator on the Loose!

The Japanese learned from Royal Navy exploits in the Mediterranean. The US were slow to learn the benefit of British steel decks until their carriers’ wooden decks were penetrated by kamikazies at great cost to their sailors. The angled deck was another British invention as was the later ramp deck. Test pilot Captain Eric Brown still holds the record for piloting the number of aircraft types. He made the first carrier landing of a jet powered aeroplane. He flew the lethal Me163 Komet (and lived!) along with so many other experimental German types. After piloting just about anything capable of getting airborne he stated that the Me262 was the most advanced and capable fighter of WW2 bar none and five years ahead of anything available to the allies, which certainly included the Corsair.

Maybe ?? the P-40 is at the top?? It held the line while others were developed . Maybe without the P -40 there would not have time for the others to be developed . This does not suppose that a v on v contest would have been won by a P -40 .

Outstanding video. I had never heard of this aircraft before. The F4-U was/is my favorite WWII aircraft. In my opinion the Corsair was the best piston engine aircraft of WWII. To bad it didn't make it to Europe.

From the standpoint of flew into combat theater before the last day of the war, and on a technical basis, the P-80 Shooting Star was half a decade ahead of the meteor or -262.

The other two jets were very good also, but the F4F Bearcat was probably the best piston engined fighter that came out of that era. Many many credible pilots agree.

I have always liked the strange look of the Corsair, with similar wings as the German Stuka, but the best fighter? Even many on the Allied side agrees that it most likely was the Kurt Tank constructed, German Focke Wulf fw190/Ta152 witch was the most formidable fighter. Luckily the Germans ran out of fuel and pilots at an early time so even the Lockheed Lightning, heavy fighter was able to operate over Germany. But those pilots who continuing to fight sometimes reached what seems to be absurd numbers of planes shot down, with 352 as the highest number (Erich Hartmann). And many came past 200 planes shot down.

I've heard that another reason for the inverted gullwing design of the wings was that it was important for the wing roots to attach to the fuselage at a 90 degree angle.

Fun fact: I was a resident at the Miami VA Hospital in the early 1980s. Back then many of my patients were still WW2 vets.
One of them, a WW2 fighter pilot who flew Mustangs told me that right after the war you could buy surplus Mustangs for
$5000! I'm sure Corsairs were probably in the same price range.

Not true hellcat better than corsair. Better kill rate 24 to 1 vs corsair 11 to 1 better armor easyer to fly by a lot. Cheaper too. Full of crap these bozos just repeat sound bites. Look at the facts.

Must be great to be a deluded American!.

How do we know it was the best plane of WWII ? IT lasted in service AND Production even after the war was long over. I bet it would have done just fine in Vietnam as well but it was really worked hard in Korea.

28 cylinders lol insane

Is there a version of this video targeted to the adults?

Was it any better than the Hellcat? Many years ago I saw a corsair abandoned south of Provo, Utah. I mentioned it to a fellow at an airshow and he knew the guy that got it and restored it.

Only used by the US navy ? Not good for European theatre ?

The Brits showed the US navy how to use them properly.

C-47
did more to win the war than any fighter

This over the Mustang, Zero, 109 and the P47 really?🧠🤯🔫

Did people just forget the swordfish?

I just found this channel, and I am one very happy boy

I flew a Corsair replica to airshows and thought I would give you some feedback, in some cases the aircraft would stall tail-first which will wake you up real quick, you didn't mention this but a lot of Navy Pilots were killed when they tried to perform a go around and gave it full throttle over the carrier which would torque the aircraft and inverting it, and did you also notice that some Corsairs had the three blades and others have the four bladed props? Do you know why?

“Carrier based frighter “? 😂

It's BOY-ington not Bo-ington!!! Actually it was Hallenbeck. He changed it from Hallenback to Boyington to escape marital status restrictions at that time. Boyngton was his bloodline father's name. And he was seldom called "Pappy." "Gramps" was more like it. "Rats" even more. And he had the nickname "Rats" much much longer. I built scale models for one of his pilots that lived right behind us named "Dutch." It was Boyington who gave that name to him....Outstanding Video😆😆😆

The best WWII "fighter" is the one that could excel at the most fighter jobs and do the other ones well. Don't see the Corsair doing long range escort or high altitude interception.

When you consider power, performance, payload, protection, Armament and versatility, the P-47 stands alone. This indestructible death machine put up numbers no one else can match. Lost the beauty contest though.

Before the invasion of Normandy the anti aircraft crews were briefed. If they saw blue aircraft, they were American. Green aircraft were British.
If they saw no aircraft, they were German.

This is a joke - right?
Carrier based fighter even considered to be the best WWII fighter plane. This has to be a joke.

Have loved it since "blacksheep squadron" because it just looks nasty. 50 now and have 5 models of Corsairs within 10 feet of me atm (love the Spitfire too, but its a thing of beauty, the Corsair is a freakin' lethal beast!)

I don't see how you can describe any fighter as "best" - all had design trade-offs and different purposes. And don't believe 11-1 kill ratios - you'd have to believe kill totals and not count non-combat losses of Corsairs - of which they had quite a few. I'll grant that the Corsair and P-51 both did good service in Korea after most WWII planes were put out to pasture.

Great show! You earned a subscriber!

Good stuff.
Mr. Burchette is like the Mr. Rodgers of aircraft history. Subbed!

Vickers Wellington. Oh, best fighter ? The F4F Hellcat.

How hot did that 4 row radial run? What else used It?
The F4U is a potent aircraft with some quirky handling faults associated with the torque provided by the P&W 2800 Radial and that was also typical of every fighter that used the power-plant. to one degree or another. That's the trade off for an air cooled power-plant that takes incredible damage whereas a liquid cooled motor is not taking you to your base once the cooling system gets perforated.

I used to say I would've liked a P47N if I were free to choose my means of survival back then. That came from a non pilot and the more I learn from reading the more appreciative I might've been, after all, of a cost effective pilot friendly P51D with it's relatively trouble free unique single shaft two stage mechanical supercharger on that Merlin that would leave me free to focus on that aforementioned survival goal in an aircraft with a wide range of comparative performance advantages over almost all it's adversaries.
The P&W 2800 does sound badass to the ear though.

Best plane of WW2 is a matter of opinion within limits. That's the fact.

Best? You can’t possibly claim “best” unless you define “at what”…….

BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP!
'MERICA HELL YEAH!

This is my favorite plane. It looks so damn cool. I want to get my pilots license and buy one one day.

V ery nice job! Great resenter

I th I k the R2800 engine might have been the most important factor in an Bing the war

If I had a choice, I’d be flying a P38 Lightning. The Fork Tailed Devil was outwardly feared by the Germans

Republic's XP-72 was far superior to the F2G. It had a close fitting cowl,thrust augumentation on its exhaust, and a fan behind the spinner for cooling(copying Kurt Tanks FW-190). Only the end of WW 2 and the advent of the P-80 stopped the contract of 100 to be built.

Easilly the bf109

I am a military aircraft geek and lover, especially World War II. And ever since I was a little kid the Vaught F4 U1 Corsair has always been my absolute favorite of all time! A big part of that was the TV show baa baa Black Sheep about Pappy Boyington

Which was the best airplane? Let's ask the enemy which plane they feared the most. First of all the Germans didn't face all the airplanes of the Allies; only the Japanese did. (The Japanese did meet the Soviets a few months before the end of the war.) The highest-scoring Japanese ace who survived the war said they feared the Corsair the most. He, Saburo Sakai, was speaking for all Japanese fighter pilots. Sakai had a very healthy respect for the Navy/Marine pilots. After his first encounter with Naval aviation fighters (F4Fs), he felt that they were the best and most disciplined of all. Then came the Marines (Naval aviation) in the Corsair and the legend was born.
The Me 262 was great but entered late in the war in small numbers.

Interesting... Wildcat was 9 to 1 and considered pitiful. Smh at modern know it alls😅

Pratt and Whitney should have gotten a Pres citation or something... That kick azz R 2800 was in so many kick azz planes it's not funny

The Japanese developed new fighters that were meant to match the Hellcat and Corsair. The Hellcat had problems but the Corsairs were improved and matched the Tony and Frank.

The F4u was not the best Fighter, that was the Ta152!

The kill/losses ration dont make the best fighter. Any japanese planes was much more better, only the mass of us planes and the weak jap.Empire industries was the reason.

Great video and presenter mate — you’ve got yourself a new sub