← F4U Corsair Chance Vought · Variant 2 of 7

Vought Corsair I–IV (Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm)

Britain's Lend-Lease Corsairs — clipped wingtips, flown from carriers before the US Navy did · In service 1943 · In combat 1944–1945

The Royal Navy received Corsairs under Lend-Lease from all three production lines: 95 'birdcage' F4U-1s as the Corsair I, 510 raised-canopy F4U-1As as the Corsair II, 430 Brewster F3A-1s as the Corsair III and Goodyear FG-1/FG-1Ds as the Corsair IV. The wingtips were clipped by 20 cm so the folded aircraft fitted the lower hangar decks of British carriers, at the cost of a higher sink rate on landing.

No. 1830 Naval Air Squadron was commissioned on 1 June 1943 and assigned to HMS Illustrious, and the Fleet Air Arm put the Corsair into carrier service before the US Navy did. Only the Mk II and Mk IV were used in combat: Corsairs from HMS Victorious and HMS Formidable flew cover for the strikes on the battleship Tirpitz in April, July and August 1944, and later served with the British Pacific Fleet.

Canadian pilot Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray of 1841 Squadron, flying from HMS Formidable, was killed attacking shipping in Onagawa Bay, Japan on 9 August 1945 and was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross — the last of the Second World War. Goodyear FG-1D BuNo 88297, flown by The Fighter Collection at Duxford, wears the markings of Fleet Air Arm Corsair KD345 of 1850 Squadron.