Whistling Death...

A Corsair banks steeply at the Planes of Fame Airshow, a few years ago.
Photo by Scott Schwartz

Known by the Japanese as the Whistling Death, the Vought Corsair's distinctive inverted gull-wings were necessary so that the large propeller would clear the ground.  The Corsair first flew in 1940.  Since the aircraft was designed to be an interceptor, the prototype was equipped with small bomb-bays in each wing.  The idea was to drop small bombs on to attacking enemy aircraft.  Production models were simply flying gun, bomb, and rocket platforms- the bombs and rockets being mounted externally.

The example shown in the photograph is either an F4U-1 (built by Vought), or an FG-1(built by Goodyear).  Corsairs saw service through the end of the Korean War, and the aircraft was the last piston-engine fighter to be produced in the United States.  The final Corsair (an F4U-7) rolled off the assembly line in 1953.