Inside the Vought F4U-4 Corsair: Full Cockpit Tour and Detailed Walkaround
Video from the channel Military Aviation History about Vought F4U Corsair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 15:03. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.
What is covered
Exterior and cockpit tour of the first Vought F4U-4 Corsair of the series, preserved at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut, a state that has the Corsair as its official aircraft. This example was used in flight testing and therefore carries no armament.
Details shown
On the nose, the four-blade Hamilton Standard Hydromatic constant-speed propeller, with a pitch range of 26 to 60 degrees, and the air-cooled 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine, with water injection and a two-stage, two-speed supercharger. The single self-sealing fuel tank, holding about 230 gallons, sits ahead of the pilot. The main landing gear also served as a dive brake; the flaps extend up to 50 degrees in 10-degree steps and retract automatically above 110 knots. Wing folding is hydraulic, with a manual backup pump. Possible armament was six .50-caliber machine guns, 20 mm cannon on some -4s, rockets, and bombs of up to 1,000 pounds. In the cockpit, from left to right, the tour covers the trim controls, the engine control quadrant, the arrestor hook, the flight and engine instruments, the electrical panel, and the control stick with its triggers.
Context
The F4U-4 weighed about 9,000 pounds empty and about 15,000 pounds at full load. On the first 600 -1 Corsairs, the nose landing gear had its own separate lever for the dive function; this was later combined into a single control to simplify production.