Reno Air Races and Air Racing History

their creation of the Kamikaze (“Divine Wind”) special suicide-attack forces, using aircraft flown by dedicated volunteer pilots for one-way crash-bombing missions against advancing U.S. & Allied invasion fleet ships. The Allies quickly realized this enemy tactic was no half-hearted ploy. From the first official documented Kamikaze attack on May 27, 1944 through June 1945 - 3,913 Kamikaze pilots died flying special attack sorties against the Allies, which sank 45 ships. During the Okinawa Campaign (01 April - 23 June 45) alone - 1,915 Kamikaze sorties sank 36 ships and damaged another 368. Allied casualties were 5,000+ dead and 4,800 wounded.

In early 1944, after U.S. Naval Intelligence revealed sketchy details of Japanese plans to organize such special attack units, a greater urgency was affirmed regarding an already-established need for a specially-designed carrier-based fighter with great speed and superlative climbing ability to intercept Japanese reconnaissance planes at altitude, and this new threat. It was in response to this need, that the remarkable Goodyear F2G Corsair program was born. Earlier, in March 1943, a BuAer directive initiated the loan of a USN Vought F4U-1 Corsair to Pratt & Whitney of Hartford, Connecticut as a test-bed airframe for mating their new experimental 3,000hp. XR-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. This became the granddaddy of the F2G Super Corsair with the designation of- F4U-1WM, and the project was turned-over to Goodyear Aircraft, of Akron, Ohio, for further testing and development.

A subsequent BuAer directive in Feb. 1944 initiated the F2G program contract which was issued March 22, 1944 for a total of 418 F2G aircraft to be built, as a development of the in-production Goodyear FG-1 Corsair. Two bubble-canopied, turtle-backed versions were called-for: the fixed-wing F2G-1 to operate from land bases, and the folding-wing F2G-2 for carrier operations. Required top-speed for both types at 16,500ft. altitude was stipulated for the dash-one at 428+mph and two miles per hour less for the F2G-2. The first aircraft was to be delivered and fully flight-ready in one year. Nine different FG-1s were employed for various design & modification tests in the F2G program. Though the first test run-up of the XR-4360 engine on the F4U-1WM came on May 23, 1944 - production delays at Pratt & Whitney seriously slowed down completion of the first two XF2G prototype test aircraft, which were BuAer Nos. - 13471 & 13472. Goodyear’s chief test pilot- Don Armstrong made the first flight in 13471 on August 26, 1944. Armstrong loved the new fighter’s performance and feel, dubbing it a - “Homesick Angel”, and noted in his own autobiography (“I Flew Them First”) and in subsequent interviews - his belief that had WW2 not been halted by use of the Atomic Bomb, thus requiring invasion of the Japanese homeland- the F2G would have ably-fulfilled its’ designated role as a Kamikaze interceptor.

Though the first production F2G-1 was accepted for delivery on July 15, 1945 - the contract was cut-back two months previously, amending the total production run down to five F2G-1s and five F2G-2s. The future service roll for virtually all the great production propeller fighters was coming to a close with the advent of the first Jet-Era fighter designs being tested and heading for the assembly lines. 

Following is a listing of all R-4360-powered prototypes and production Goodyear F2G Corsairs by BuAer serial #: