A Forgotten Hero of The Pacific War | Vought-Sikorsky OS2U ‘Kingfisher’ [Historical Deep-Dive]

today we're taking a look at the vort os2u kingfisher this observation aircraft was a common sight on the deck of a us battleship or cruiser during the pacific war and it was a thoroughly welcomed site for the many downed airmen it rescued from the perils of the waves though it was an invaluable asset to any ship's company and a guardian angel to many its often utilitarian tasks never gave it the same level of fame as other icons of the pacific usually the f4u corsair or the pby catalina come to mind when you think of that particular theater and i hope today's video sheds some more light on this often under-appreciated plane today's video is also very kindly sponsored by babel which is the world's number one language learning app babel is used by over 10 million subscribers worldwide and with the lessons designed by real language teachers it's been proven to get you speaking a different language in just three weeks now the great thing about babel is you can learn a new language in a number of different ways you can read you can listen you can watch podcasts you can play games or you could attend live classes now me personally i prefer to learn by speaking the heist and z the heisen c now that's a formal question and i would of course reply with mine nama east hair and then put my surname at the end babel teaches more than just the strict vocabulary it teaches you about the language's culture slang words and the different ways it can be used in social and formal settings it's a great tool if you're planning on going away on holiday or like me you plan to do a lot of overseas travel for work but my wonderful viewers you're not just benefiting from me no longer butchering the german language today when you click on the link in the video description you'll get a massive 65 off your subscription with babel and a 20-day money-back guarantee once again thank you to babel for sponsoring today's video and now let's get back to the vault os 2u the time of the kingfisher could be considered the heyday of the naval scout before the advent of radar the scout and observation aircraft served as the eyes of the fleet they would patrol hundreds of miles of sea either from a shore base or launched from a ship they were used to scout the movements of surface ships or submarines act as gunnery spotters for battleships and cruisers or actors air sea rescue units in the mid-1930s the us navy realized that their current observation aircraft the vort 03u corsair was beginning to show its age much of its design being taken from the o2u which entered service back in 1926 the situation was also compounded by the rapid advancements being made in aviation many of which were rendering certain aircraft obsolete within just a few years of service in 1937 the us navy asked all interested manufacturers to submit bids for a new observation scout aircraft the key requirements of the specifications stated that the new aircraft must be a two-seater it must be small enough to operate from a battleship without the need for folding wings and it must be able to be easily converted into a land plane to operate from shore bases three companies submitted aircraft to meet the specification steerman aircraft submitted to the xoss-1 a two-seat biplane of mixed construction the naval aircraft factory submitted to the exo sn1 also a biplane of mixed construction and vort submitted a mid-wing monoplane that would become the xos2u1 the os 2u was designed by vaught engineer rex byzal who by now had over 15 years experience in building naval fighters and it showed unlike the competition and to an extent a large number of senior naval officers he'd cast his gaze abroad seen what was being built elsewhere and realized that in a couple of years a biplane would be utterly useless not only that but bisol wanted a design that significantly outperformed both the existing naval scouts and the competition and that made going with the monoplane design all the more necessary like the submissions by steerman and naf the design that was to become the first os 2u was also of mixed construction but to less of a degree the fuselage was all metal built around an aluminium monocoque the mid-mounted cantilever wing was also built up from metal but only the forward section was covered in a metal skin with the rear section being fabric covered to save weight the os 2u prototype was unique for a number of things aside from being the first monoplane naval scout it was the first aircraft designed to use spot welding in order to create a non-buckling fuselage structure this was done by baisal to tackle the problem of keeping the aircraft light while also keeping it sturdy enough to withstand the constant stress of catapult launches it also brought other benefits not only was conventional maintenance time on the aircraft to be lowered because of this but the new construction technique would also help to improve the service life of the airframe the prototype was also the first to feature drooping ailerons that could be used to act as full span flaps to achieve and handle the slow takeoff and landing speeds of seabourn operations these flaps were necessary and it was also necessary for the aircraft to have a very low wing loading which is why it had a relatively large wing surface area of 262 square feet the ailerons were of course not useful as ailerons when dropped and so lateral control was accomplished by means of an upper wing spoiler per the specification the aircraft had a crew of two a pilot up front in a fully enclosed cockpit and a crew member in the rear cockpit that would act as a gunner observer and radio operator both canopies had sliding doors with the rear canopy opening considerably further so that a machine gun on a flexible mount could be used for defense vort submitted byzal's design in march of 1937. in manner of point the company was enjoying a bit of a head start as they had been previously approached by the navy in 1936 for a new naval scout design but their previous attempt a biplane had to not been a big enough jump in performance to order into production which was yet another reason for beisel going for the monoplane route this time he was confident that his design would be well received by the navy's bureau of aeronautics but initially this confidence received a bit of a check despite some monoplanes entering service the bureau of aeronautics doubted the monoplane's ability to manage the low takeoff speeds of catapult launched scout planes when the proposal for the vort prototype was submitted to the navy the bureau nearly turned it down as they did not believe the design could possibly meet to the weight and performance requirements in fact vort was requested to spend two weeks checking and rechecking the weight and landing speeds to make sure some sort of mistake had not been made once these checks were complete the design was resubmitted no doubt with some heated insistence on basel's part that his numbers were in fact correct and eventually a contract was placed for the construction of the xos2u when complete it was powered by a 9-cylinder 450 horsepower pratt whitney r 985-4 wasp first completed as a land plane it made its maiden flight on the 1st of march 1938 a full three months ahead of the competing prototypes built by naf and steerman the aircraft was later converted to a float plane with its first flight in this form happening on the 19th of may 1938 test flights of the float plane model showed a top speed of 171 miles an hour at 5 000 feet and a landing speed of just 55 miles an hour the latter being courtesy of the drooping ailerons following its initial manufacturer trials the prototype was sent for naval evaluation at nes acostia in august of 1938 and following these it was sent to the uss west virginia for catapult trials these trials were wholly successful silencing any lingering skepticism of the monoplane design and on the 22nd of may 1939 the bureau of aeronautics placed an order with a vort for 54 production aircraft under the designation of os 2u-1 as a side point here during 1939 the chance vought aircraft division and that of sikorsky merged their aircraft manufacturing facilities and varzakovsky came into being this is why the ostu is sometimes referred to as the varzakovsky os 2u but in reality it was pretty much all done by vort as sikorsky was busy working on helicopters and other rotary craft the first order of 54 os 2u1s were delivered between may and december of 1940. and these first production models differed from the prototype in several ways it was now powered by the r985-48 variant of the wasp which used a longer exhaust stack the leading edge of the observer's canopy was squared off it's now had a radio direction finder installed in the rear cockpit and the float was changed from the vort design to ones made by edo this floats unlike the more pointy vault model had a rounded bow and a different rudder shape it also had a stout to rear support struts to cope with rough seas the armament layout was also finalized the os u1 was armed with two 30 caliber machine guns one in a fixed forward firing position operated by the pilot using the mark 3 telescopic gun sight which some loved and some hated and one in a flexible mount that was used by the rear gunner as the chance of being dragged into a war became more likely either due to the deteriorating diplomatic situation with japan or due to somebody in europe doing something catastrophic stupid enough to warrant american involvement it was decided to improve the offensive capabilities of scout planes the os 2u1 was thus fitted with underwing racks one per wing that could accommodate either a 100 pound bomb or a 325 pound depth charge though it was now different from the prototype in several ways overall the physical changes were minor and so the performance figures of the production model were generally the same as the prototype upon completion the first production aircraft were delivered to observation squadron 4 vso4 aboard the battleship uss colorado making them the first monoplanes to serve aboard a us battleship of the original order of 54 49 were built on floats and assigned to various battleships and cruisers and the five land planes were assigned to shore bases later on the first os 2u1 to roll off the production line was later loaned to northrop in 1941 to test out a set of so-called zap flap wings these were designed by ed zapp they were a new style of full span flap wing that were intended for use on the upcoming p61 the new wings increased the os to use wingspan to 36 feet and 6 inches and the zap flaps were manually controlled from the cockpit in the end the p61 never used the wing due to production tolerances but two more os 2us were fitted for experimentation and later designated as the xos2u4 before the first production batch of 54 os 2u1 units had been completed things were already moving on on the 4th of december 1939 the navy issued a production contract for 158 improved variants designated as the os 2u2 externally the os 2u2 was identical to its predecessor internally however there were a few changes it now had self-sealing fuel tanks additional armor protection and additional fuel tanks mounted in the inboard wing panels this increased the fuel capacity by 96 us gallons giving a new total fuel capacity of 240 us gallons or approximately 908 liters for those of us who use metric the fuel system was also protected by a co2 gas purge system to prevent the buildup of explosive vapor which was nice all of these changes added weight and this did reduce the top speed by 7 miles an hour but this was considered an acceptable trade-off and no further modifications were made unlike the first batch the majority of os2 u2s were completed as land planes with only 45 out of the 158 delivered built as floatplane models many of these aircraft at least 99 according to company records were used to form inshore patrol squadrons that were either land or water-based depending on operational need and they would be operated from coastal bases in the continental united states alaska panama as well as bases scattered across the pacific in what was now becoming a theme of rapid iteration the os 2u3 came into being in may of 1941. not long after the previous variant had first entered operational service it was also during this year specifically in october that the os 2u was given the name kingfisher by order of the secretary of the navy and this name was applied retroactively to all existing units the third variant of the kingfisher was the most widely produced with 1006 being built by vort and a further 300 being built by the naval aircraft factory as the os 2n externally they were identical to the previous variant but again like its predecessor there were internal changes it was now powered by a 450 horsepower prattan whitney r 985 and 2. the am designation indicated that this engine was common to both the army and navy and that parts could be used interchangeably this was a welcome change as previously many engines had a different designation for each service even though the engine itself would be identical and this led to confusion when it came to parts ordering especially if the aircraft from one service found itself being looked after by the other for whatever reason having a universal designation sped up the ordering process and made general parts and maintenance a lot easier in a first for the series it was equipped with a bracket on the starboard side to mount a fairchild gun camera the camera itself was bulky and cumbersome and it was installed only for training and gunnery practice rather than for recording actual combat these changes made to the os 2u2 and the os 23 had brought the range down to 908 miles which was almost a 10 reduction on the original but this was deemed acceptable for a few reasons one the extra protection offered to the crew was welcome as even a small amount of extra armor can do a lot for survivability two the extra fire prevention system was welcome for obvious reasons and three the further a scout travelled from its mothership the more difficult it was to navigate back and therefore the more easier it was to get lost so even though the effective range had dropped a 905 mile range still gave an extreme operational range of 450 miles if the pilot liked running on fumes which was still a huge amount of sea to cover and so the loss of 80-ish miles wasn't a huge problem once it was operational numbers the service life of the kingfisher was remarkably varied and it found itself serving aboard a number of different naval vessels by the time of the attack on pearl harbor 17 of the 18 commissioned battleships were now fully equipped with kingfishers the uss wyoming was a gallery training ship and didn't need them and kingfishers were also used aboard the omaha class light cruisers before pearl harbor the units aboard battleships were made up from units of vo1 through to vo5 observation squadrons whilst those aboard cruisers consisted of units from vcs3 through to vcs9 cruiser scouting squadrons after pearl harbor this changed the organizational side of the vo and vcs squadrons basically became a thing of the past and the aircraft and men became a part of a ship's company with replacements being assigned to the ships on an as needed basis though this simplified the management of the aircraft from an administrative perspective they now being the ship's problem it presented headaches for the crewmen and officers who used them almost all maintenance work for the kingfishers could be carried out at sea barring the most extreme cases but parts and equipment were still finite in a perfect world any parts or equipment could eventually be sourced when the ship put into a port where there happened to be a naval air station however it was quickly discovered that said stations had not been given an organization plan that now reflected the independent and flexible nature of the kingfishers being the ship's problem rather than the squadrons when the spare parts were needed no one seemed to know where they were or if they did they often didn't have the logistical authority to release them to the kingfisher crew more often than not these kingfisher units attached to battleships and cruisers found that they were completely on their own in terms of being responsible for parts and maintenance at port and in consequence their pilots and crews had to resort to the age-old well-known naval system of midnight stores it was quickly understood that when spare parts were needed for your kingfisher you liberated them under the cover of darkness when their crews weren't ashore plundering warehouses by night kingfishers attached to battleships and cruisers provided much-needed support during the early stages of the us navy's involvement in the war with a distinct lack of escort carriers protection still had to be given to the atlantic and pacific convoys battleships and cruisers assigned to the convoy duty provided the tactically and psychologically important air umbrella a constant patrol was kept through the daylight hours and each os 2u was usually equipped with depth charges or bombs in the event that an enemy submarine was spotted the kingfisher would engage it harassing the submarine until the escorting destroyers could close the range and turn the harassment into a depth charge-filled nightmare speaking of destroyers os2us were used in an experimental program that saw six fletcher class destroyers modified to carry scout planes the rotating catapult was placed where the number three main battery and after torpedo tubes were normally placed and a tank with 1780 us gallons of aviation fuel was installed on the main deck and this was surrounded by a cofferdam filled with co2 for obvious safety reasons problems with the hoisting equipment led to the removal of the aircraft from four of the destroyers but the uss halford and the uss stevens enjoyed good success with their kingfishers overall though the project was canned recovering the aircraft was too much of a headache as the destroyer did not produce a large enough area of calm sea in its wake for safe landings when it was underway the alternative was for the destroyer to come to an almost complete stop to pick up the aircraft which in wartime is not ideal during heavy seas it was even worse and the aircraft were often damaged when striking the funnel and the giant tank of aviation fuel on the main deck was equally disconcerting eventually in december of 1943 the uss stevens and halford had their aircraft equipment removed and the brief era of floatplanes on destroyers came to an end and it was probably for the best kingfishers would take part in all the major actions of the pacific war from guadalcanal to the marshalls the gilberts the marianas the philippines and on to iwo jima and okinawa they stalked the japanese fleets harassed submarines and provided observation for ground troops as well as gunnery spotting for their own ships but the role they are most remembered for is that of the guardian angel that rescued many adult pilots who were stranded at sea in this role two particular events stand out the first of these happened in 1942 and to be fair it stands out more because of the person that was rescued rather than the plane itself but it's still worth talking about in late october a u.s army air force b-17 had been forced to ditch in the pacific due to a navigation era for nearly three weeks an unrelenting search was carried out for the eight missing airmen particularly as among them was captain eddie v rickenbacker medal of honor recipient and the highest scoring u.s fighter ace from the first world war his salvation and indeed that of the whole crew by one who died of dehydration came in the form of an os2u this particular os 2u had already lived a busy life it had survived the attack on pearl harbor and at some point during its service life it had received the nickname of the bug over two days of searching it found the missing men and on the second day of rescue it found rickenbacker and two others unable to fly all three survivors back in one go the decision was made to taxi across 40 miles of ocean to the nearest island with rickenbacker and one other crewmen lashed onto the wings the second rescue event of note happened in april of 1944. personally i think this event stands out more as it is a better testament to the kingfisher's durability and its ability to handle rough water it occurred when the us fleet was beginning its assault on the japanese stronghold of truck atoll though there was little japanese air presence during the battle heavy anti-air fire kept the kingfishers of the battleship uss north carolina very busy events began on april 30th when the two kingfishers the first flown by lieutenant j.j dowdle and the second by lieutenant j.a burns were circling over a downed pilot lieutenant keynes from the uss enterprise dowdle took his kingfisher down for the pickup however the water was rough lieutenant keynes was forced to cling to one of the wing floats as his raft was swept away but the added weight then caused the kingfisher to capsize when it was caught by a wave witnessing the unhappy turn of events from above lieutenant burns brought his plane down and carefully taxied over to the downed pilot and the now equally waterlogged lieutenant dowdle and his rear gunner ari hill burns and his gunner aj gill helped the men aboard to balance the float plane keynes was placed on one wing dowdle on the other and hill was hung on the fuselage burns then taxied the five of them across the water in an active war zone to the rescue submarine uss tang where he deposited his now even more soaked passengers the uss tang then went over to destroy dowdle's ditched kingfisher to keep it from falling into enemy hands immediately after this lieutenant burns was directed east to where another pilot had been reportedly downed and the uss tang was directed to cover rescue operations burns found the downed pilot lieutenant rt barber but again the added weight made it too difficult to take off in the rough seas and so burns radioed the uss tang to come over and while they waited burns gil and baba sat bobbing on the waves watching the other carrier aircraft continue to pummel the fortifications at truck as they watched the assault which must have been surreal to see from such a position two grumman tbf avengers flown by lieutenant rs nelson and ensign c.l farrell received damage from anti-aircraft fire and also had to ditch as the uss tang was known to be on its way burns declared his intention to try and rescue them as well and get everyone to the submarine he taxied over which took about 30 minutes in the rough conditions reaching lieutenant nelson's raft first which contained said pilot and his two crew members burns tossed them in line and proceeded to tow the life raft over to the second which contained lieutenant farrell and his two crew members burns then attempted to tow both life rafts to safety this proved impractical as the increased drag forced him to increase the engine power and this resulted in a backwash of wind and water so shocking that it threatened to drown the very people the burns had rescued after giving them the power wash treatment burns transferred them all onto the kingfisher placing some on the wings and others on the fuselage to try and balance the load and he resumed taxiing towards the uss tang the tang then received another emergency call disappearing beneath the waves to go off and save yet another downed pilot probably as the thought of burns adding any more weight onto his already overloaded kingfisher was by now comical when it's returned the waves had finally taken their toll burns kingfisher had started to take on water in the main float and it was starting to list all nine aviators were taken aboard the tang and for its services of rescuing ten men in the space of a single day burns kingfisher was then sunk by the guns of the uss tang again to keep it from falling into the hands of the enemy the ruggedness of the os 2u as demonstrated in the hands of lieutenant burns endeared it to its crews and the fortunate souls that it often flew down to rescue but it also performed its other roles to admiration though they were often thankless tasks that never covered them in the same glory doing said tasks it enjoyed a remarkably long service life in the us navy serving well into the late 1940s as a training and patrol aircraft admittedly this long service life had not been planned but rather it was forced upon the kingfisher by the complete failure of the curtis cemu which we recently covered on this channel the curtis sc seahawk started to replace the kingfisher in october of 1944 but it was a slow process along with dutifully serving the u.s navy the kingfisher would also find service overseas the final variant the os 2u3 was the only model to be exported chile received 15 aircraft under a len lease agreement six went to uruguay nine to argentina six to mexico and three to the dominican republic the dominican kingfishers were reportedly later transferred to cuba and these were apparently used to bomb government troops during the final stages of the revolution the largest evidence of this being the sole aircraft on display at the museum of the revolution in havana the two largest foreign operators of the kingfisher were britain and australia the royal australian air force received 18 aircraft that had been relinquished from an original order of 24 that were on route to the dutch east indies when the islands fell these were used by the newly formed number 107 squadron and they were flown primarily on anti-submarine and convoy escort patrols they were also used in experiments for a new camouflage scheme when delivered they were painted in the overall light grey and forest colours of the dutch air force which were highly unsuitable for australia even our rainforests here are dusty and new colours were soon adopted sadly there doesn't seem to be any photo record of this but numerous sources say that this happened the fleet air arm of the royal navy would receive 100 of the kingfishers and instead of renaming them like they sometimes did with imported models they kept the name the kingfisher was slated to re-equip certain cruisers and armed merchant cruisers that could not launch the supermarine walrus the then standard catapult aircraft of the royal navy operating in all types of weather the kingfishers operated by the royal navy would serve just as well as their u.s counterparts during july august and september of 1943 kingfishers and other float planes from the armed merchant cruiser canton and the light cruiser emerald made up the only air strength of the eastern fleet in the indian ocean as the royal navy could not spare an aircraft carrier for this time by the end of april 1944 catapult aircraft had been phased out of the royal navy and most of the kingfishers were then decommissioned from fleet air ram service due to their high production numbers and extensive use several models of the os 2u3 survive today unsurprisingly most are on display in the united states but others can be found in australia new zealand chile and cuba the os2u kingfishers served longer than expected and did more than expected though it was often thankless and unglamorous their service would span the entirety of the united states participation of the second world war they even managed to melt many a reserved heart in the fleet air arm though many of them would still claim the super marine walrus to be their particular favorite float plane but the story of the walrus is one for another day as always thank you all so much for watching and a big thank you of course to the patrons with a special shout out to kevin deliado bain fb christopher r tronathon eric hindman and john austin jr for their support as wing commander tier patrons thank you all so much and i'll catch you all next time goodbye

Channel: Rex's Hangar

Views: 463,793

Keywords: os2u kingfisher, world war ii, us navy, vought os2u, kingfisher, os2u war thunder, vought aircraft, pacific war, rex's hangar, US Navy aircraft, plane video, vought os2u kingfisher, aviation, history, aircraft documentary, ww2 documentary, pacific, military aircraft, catapult, catapult aircraft, chance vought, rex beisel, os2u kingfisher war thunder, world war 2

Id: L74LQlzTD84

Length: 32min 49sec (1969 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2022