[ Post a Response | The SteelNavy.Com Message Board ]
Posted by tomcervo on July 14, 2026, 5:22:30, in reply to "Sorry Ralph, you've got some bad info"
According to Barrett Tillman, Tommy Blackburn had a much more colorful response to the notion that the RN 'tamed" the Corsair. 
Previous Message Previous MessageUS carrier trials began in 1942, where a number of problems immediately became apparent which caused the Navy to initially relegate it to the Marines, who were primarily land based.
This is incorrect. Dana Bell found some documents and graciously passed them to me to post here . The Navy actually had Vought engineers out with VF-17 during shakedown and the majority of the landing issues were resolved before the end of the cruise. As you can see by reading through the posted US Navy documentation, the Navy found the Corsair to be suitable for carrier use.
The reason Corsairs were initially relegated to land bases was logistics - it made supply chains simpler and Vought did not ave the capacity at the time to produce what the Navy wanted. This is why both Goodyear and Brewster were brought in to produce Corsairs. By 1944 production was starting to close in on what the Navy wanted and the Navy started to plan to put Corsairs on carriers, but the Kamikaze attacks in October of that year caused them to rush and start with Marine squadrons.
Previous MessageThe Royal Navy especially developed some special landing techniques which overcame enough of the problems that they had it in carrier service in 1943.
This is also untrue. VF-17 was landing Corsairs on CV-17 Bunker Hill the same month the Royal Navy started training on the corsair (June 1943)
Responses