The Corsair could outturn,outclimb, & outroll the Mustang. Could also take more battle damage. Later versions were as fast or faster than Mustang, more heavily armed to boot. Why then was it not considered a better plane than the mustang?

Eric Brown did not consider it to be at top of his list. Wonder if any US flyers flew both & had any comments to make. Anybody know?

I think the early Corsair got off to a bad start because it was supposed to be a carrier plane and the Navy pawned it off to the Marines because the visiablity was too poor to operate off carriers until modifications were made to it. By then the Hellcat was established.

In the Korean War the Corsair did well off carriers but it had many changes made to it by then such as going from a three blade prop to a four blade with bigger engine, a blown clear canopy instead of a birdcage type and I think they made the pilots seat so you could raise and lower it during landings and take offs to improve visiblity.

Anouther reason I can think of is that the Pacific theatre was second fiddle to the European theatre as far as the press and leaders were concerned and the Corsair was not used much in Europe so it got less press and public relations. As they say "image is everything". ( I don't agree but the press does ). Anouther press issue I can think of is more aces were in Mustangs so they got more public relations than the Corsair pilots. If you were around in the 1970's there was a TV show called "Black Sheep Squadon" and then the Corsair got more publicity than the P-51.

I can also think of more North American press advertisments on their products than I can for ChanceVoight. If you look at WWII issues of Nationl Geographic you can see this really well.

The Corsair was an excellent aircraft but you have to advertise your greatness.

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Good points. this topic was covered at another site. One person mentioned that the Corsair even had better range than the Mustang. The Mustang was a great plane, but I think a bit overrated.