The Vought F4U Corsair, a high-performance fighter aircraft, was utilized in both carrier-based and land-based operations with a primary focus on eliminating enemy aircraft, armed with bomb and rocket ordnance. Its distinctive inverted gull appearance, coupled with a lengthy fuselage ahead of the cockpit, characterized this low-wing monoplane. The XF4U-1 conducted its inaugural flight in May 1940.
Following its maiden flight, the US Navy requested increased armament for production Corsairs. Rex Beisel, the Vought team’s chief designer, responded by modifying each outboard folding wing panel to accommodate three .50 caliber machine guns, displacing the fuel tanks originally located in the wing leading edge. To compensate for this loss, a 897-liter (237 gal) fuselage tank was installed between the cockpit and the engine. Due to the need to maintain the aircraft’s streamlined fuselage, the cockpit was shifted almost three feet aft rather than being stacked atop the tank.
This alteration resulted in the wing obstructing the pilot’s view during critical landing stages. Furthermore, the early Corsair faced challenges such as a severe stall, potent torque and propeller effects at low speeds, a short tail wheel strut, main gear struts prone to bouncing upon touchdown, and cowl flap actuators that leaked oil onto the windshield. Coupled with poor cockpit visibility, these difficulties rendered the aircraft exceedingly challenging to land on the compact deck of an aircraft carrier. Consequently, Navy pilots quickly dubbed the F4U the “ensign eliminator” due to its tendency to pose fatal risks to inexperienced aviators.
The “ensign eliminator”
The term “ensign eliminator,” as recounted by Martin Irons in the book Corsair Down! Tales of Rescue and Survival during World War II, originated following the arrival of the first Corsair squadron, VF-12, in October 1942. Based at NAS San Diego, the squadron faced delays in receiving their aircraft and encountered typical early operational challenges. Shortly after taking delivery of their Corsairs, Walter Burkhart Bayless, USN, was compelled to make a crash-landing with Corsair 02167, the fifteenth aircraft produced. Despite having logged a thousand flying hours, Bayless skillfully brought his aircraft down on a mesa near La Jolla, narrowly avoiding a 300-foot cliff after colliding with wire fencing and fence posts. Both pilot and plane would fly again another day.
The Fighting Twelve squadron experienced significant losses, with fourteen pilots lost by mid-1943. After relocating from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in spring, the squadron began preparations for carrier-based operations aboard the USS Saratoga.
On May fourth, Lt. Cmdr. Bayless led a predawn flight of four Corsairs from Maui, but the division vanished after entering a storm front, never to return. Despite subsequent search efforts revealing only oil slicks and debris on the water’s surface, the exact cause of the division’s disappearance—whether due to structural failure, loss of control in the storm, or midair collision—remains unknown. Lt. Cmdr. Bayless, aged twenty-nine, and his fellow aviators were initially classified as “missing,” later reclassified by the Navy as “deceased.”
