F4U Corsair Design Features

Video from the channel Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 23:58. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A look at the lesser-known design features of the F4U Corsair, focused on its World War II versions: the aluminum armor, the aft-set cockpit, the landing gear used as a dive brake, the forward position of the vertical stabilizer, the fuel system, and why it has an inverted gull wing. Includes digressions on the Douglas A-26 Invader and the British Pacific Fleet.

Besides steel plates, the Corsair carried duralumin armor. This aluminum-copper alloy, invented by German Alfred Wilm in 1903, had been used in aircraft structures since 1916 and in airships such as the Graf Zeppelin and the USS Los Angeles. In the Corsair it protected the fuselage fuel tank from grazing hits. Before production, the armament was changed to six .50 caliber machine guns in the wings; combined with the folding mechanism, that left no room for large wing tanks. The main tank was moved to the center of gravity and the cockpit was shifted back. The resulting poorer visibility led the US Navy to initially reject it for carrier use and assign it mainly to the Marines at land bases. The British operated it from carriers using a curved approach. It was the most numerous fighter aboard the ten main carriers of the British Pacific Fleet, which struck the Japanese home islands and Okinawa.

The short, sturdy main gear doubled as a dive brake up to 225 knots indicated, with the tailwheel retracted. It was among the first aircraft with the main gear fully enclosed once retracted. It had two 62-gallon non-self-sealing wing tanks, purged with CO2 before combat, and a self-sealing 237-gallon fuselage tank pressurized with compressor air. The gull wing gave propeller clearance with a short landing gear, avoiding both the P-47's telescoping gear and a thicker fuselage like the Hellcat's. The oil cooler and intercooler intakes were in the leading edge, and the roughly 90° wing-to-fuselage junction reduced interference drag, according to NACA studies. It topped 400 mph, remained in production until 1953, and during the Football War in Central America a Corsair shot down three aircraft, at least one of them a P-51.