CHANCE VOUGHT F4U-4 "CORSAIR"
Reg. OE-EAS
She is exacting. She is high maintenance - and she can be dangerous! The Corsair E4U-4, known as the heraldic animal of the Flying Bulls, served mainly on US Navy aircraft carriers. During World War II, Corsairs shot down 2,140 enemy aircraft whilst losing merely 189 of their own. The Corsair F4U-4 is a highly demanding aircraft: For every flying hour, 40 hours of maintenance are required.
She consumes on average 400 litres of fuel per hour a year and during take-off it can be up to three times more. The plane is perfectly suited for aerobatics but due to her age, the Corsair must be flown carefully. Her wings can be folded to take the cramped conditions on aircraft carriers into consideration. The Flying Bulls Corsair has a long and eventful past: it was one of 2,500 Corsairs built for the US Navy in 1945 though never saw any action.
A few years later, she ended up in Honduras where she served until 1965. A Texan millionaire bought the plane and returned it to the US for a major overhaul. In 1990, he sold the Corsair to Sigi Angerer, the Flying Bulls? chief pilot to-be. The Corsair is fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R2800 CB-3 18-cylinder 46-liter capacity double-row radial engine ? with 95 liters oil content ? delivering 2,100 HP.
This accounts for the recognisable droning sound ? a truly addictive experience! Restoring and repairing the Corsair required a long time and a lot of hard work. Most instrumentation is original, only the navigation system uses modern technology. The second seat was also later added. Today the Corsair?s friendly missions are one of the greatest attractions of Hangar-7.