P-51 Mustang vs F4U Corsair: Which Was the Better Fighter?

P-51 Mustang vs F4U Corsair: how they began

The Corsair flew first. The XF4U-1 prototype took off on May 29, 1940, five months before the Mustang’s NA-73X flew on October 26, 1940. Vought was building a carrier fighter around the largest engine available, while North American was answering a British request for fighters.

The British Purchasing Commission had asked North American to build Curtiss P-40s under license. North American offered a new design instead, and its prototype was ready 102 days after the contract was signed. The Mustang entered Royal Air Force service in January 1942, and the Navy took its first production Corsair on July 31, 1942.

The early Mustang used an Allison V-1710 engine without a high-altitude supercharger, so its performance fell off above about 15,000 ft. In mid-1942 a Rolls-Royce Merlin with a two-stage supercharger fixed that, and the Merlin-powered P-51B and P-51C became the fighter people remember.

Speed and horsepower

On the numbers in the spec table above, the two are close. The F4U-4 tops out at 388 kt, or 447 mph (719 km/h), while the P-51 manages 383 kt, or 441 mph (709 km/h). The Corsair also climbs faster at 4,360 ft/min against the Mustang’s 3,200 ft/min.

The Corsair’s engine is the bigger one. The F4U-4’s Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W is rated at 2,100 hp (1,566 kW), and water injection could raise that to 2,450 hp for short bursts.

The P-51D’s Packard-built Merlin V-1650-7 is a smaller, liquid-cooled V12, and its horsepower figure differs by source: Wikipedia’s P-51D block lists 1,490 hp at 3,000 rpm, while the spec table above lists 1,720 hp.

Both aircraft reach almost the same ceiling, 41,500 ft (12,600 m) for the Corsair and 41,900 ft (12,800 m) for the Mustang. Published speeds depend on altitude and engine setting, so a few mph either way proves little. On paper the Corsair is a hair faster. In practice both were among the fastest piston fighters of the war.

Range: where the Mustang wins

Range is the real separator. The P-51 could fly 1,650 mi with external tanks, against about 1,000 mi for the Corsair on the spec table above. That gap is why the Mustang ended up escorting bombers all the way to Berlin.

A 1943 USAAF report called the P-51B the most promising escort, with an endurance of 4 hours 45 minutes on its internal fuel plus 150 US gallons carried externally.

By the end of 1944, 14 of the Eighth Air Force’s 15 fighter groups flew Mustangs. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was quoted as saying, “When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.”

The F4U-4 gave range away. Its unarmored 62-gallon wing fuel tanks were removed to improve handling, which cut its maximum range. Vought’s published fuel figure counts two 150-gallon drop tanks, so the Corsair’s internal fuel was far lower than the number suggests.

Firepower and bomb load

Both fighters carried six .50 caliber Browning machine guns in the late-war versions. The F4U-4B swapped them for four 20 mm cannon, and Vought lists eight 5 inch rockets under the Corsair’s wings. The P-51D could carry six or ten 5 inch rockets on later production blocks.

The Corsair was the heavier striker. Vought lists up to 4,000 lb of bombs for the F4U-4, against a single bomb of 100, 250 or 500 lb under each wing on the P-51D. That made the Corsair a true fighter-bomber, and it carried 70% of all bombs dropped by U.S. fighters during the war.

One correction to a common claim: the F4U-4B’s cannon were AN/M3 weapons, not the M61 Vulcan that some sources wrongly credit it with.

Carrier landings, handling and survivability

The Corsair was designed for carrier decks, and carriers were its hardest test. Its left wing could stall suddenly in a slow approach, its long nose hid the deck, and its oleo struts bounced. Fixes followed, and most early Corsairs went to Marine squadrons on land bases. Only 15% of the type’s wartime sorties launched from carriers.

The Mustang had a different weakness. Its liquid-cooled Merlin relied on a coolant radiator under the fuselage, and Wikipedia notes that radiator and coolant lines were vulnerable to small-arms fire on strafing runs. The Corsair’s engine is an air-cooled radial, the type that Wikipedia says usually let the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt shrug off small-arms fire.

Combat records

By May 8, 1945, P-51 groups of the Eighth, Ninth and Fifteenth Air Forces had claimed about 4,950 aircraft shot down, roughly half of all USAAF claims in Europe, and 4,131 destroyed on the ground. Their losses were about 2,520 aircraft. These are claims, not confirmed kills.

U.S. figures list 64,051 operational sorties for Navy and Marine Corsairs, with pilots claiming 2,140 air victories against 189 losses to enemy aircraft.

Wikipedia notes the favorable ratio owed partly to circumstances, because Corsairs moved to ground attack as the Pacific war shifted north. The Corsair also outclimbed and outdove the A6M Zero, though the Zero could turn tighter at low speed.

Both types went on to Korea. The Mustang, redesignated F-51, was the main U.S. fighter at the start of the war until jets took over. The Corsair flew mostly close support, and F4U-5N night fighters hunted supply convoys.

The last piston-engine dogfight: Corsair vs Mustang

The two met in real combat on July 17, 1969, during the Football War between Honduras and El Salvador. Honduran Captain Fernando Soto shot down three Salvadoran aircraft that day, and one of them was a Cavalier Mustang, a rebuilt P-51 variant.

Wikipedia describes that combat as the last aerial combat between piston-engined fighters in the world. The Corsair won it. El Salvador flew Mustangs and Corsairs in the same war, and the two other aircraft Soto shot down that afternoon were FG-1 Corsairs.

Which was better: the P-51 or the F4U Corsair?

For range and bomber escort, the P-51 Mustang. Nothing else the Allies had could fly a heavy-bomber raid into Germany and still fight at the end. For ground attack, heavier bomb loads and carrier operations, the F4U Corsair.

The honest answer depends on the job. Used for what each was built for, they were evenly matched, and both were among the best piston fighters of World War II.

Read more in our guides to the American fighter planes of World War II and the fastest planes of World War II, or open each aircraft’s own page for the full specifications: the North American P-51 Mustang and the Vought F4U Corsair.