what was the first single seat american fighter to exceed 400mph
" By 1944, the Corsair was beingness deployed in the Pacific in ever-increasing numbers. Japanese pilots quickly learned to fear it."
Past Marc Liebman
BETWEEN Grumman and Vought Shipping , the United States produced two of the all-time carrier-based fighters of World War II: the F6F Hellcat and the F4U Corsair .
After making its combat debut over Guadalcanal in February 1943 – 8 full months before the first F6F Hellcats entered service – the F4U Corsair would go on to go one of the virtually successful fighters of all times.
The Corsair was designed to meet a 1938 U.S. Navy requirement for a unmarried-seat shipboard fighter. The nature of the armed services's request strongly suggested — at least to the Vought blueprint team — that the Navy wanted the fastest fighter always built. Regardless, King Beisel , caput of the Vought engineering team designing the new fighter, made information technology articulate that speed for the proposed aircraft was king. As such, engineers focused on maximizing thrust and minimizing weight and elevate.
The new fighter would incorporate the largest engine under development at the time: the 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp twin row radial. The powerplant pumped out an impressive two,000 horsepower. H2o/booze injection in afterwards versions could add some other 450 ponies to that total. To plow the power of the R-2800 into thrust, Vought's engineers relied on data from prop manufacturer Hamilton Standard . Their calculations suggested that the new fighter needed a propeller with a thirteen-and-a-quarter-inch diameter in order to exceed 400 thou.p.h.
Wind tunnel tests from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (so NACA, but now known as NASA) indicated that to minimize elevate, the wing had to be faired in where it joined the bottom of the circular fuselage. Several configurations were considered just each required an abnormally long landing gear which would have up precious infinite and exist heavy and circuitous.
Alfred Sibila , the team's aerodynamicist, was in a meeting early on in the design process with Chief Engineer Rex Beisel and six others from the design team [i] to discuss wing placement and blueprint. As Sibila recalled in an article on the Corsair in the February 1995 issue of Proceedings , that "Beisel asked: 'Why don't they put a little bend in the wing where the landing gear attachment would be lower and the gear shorter … ?'" With that, the Corsair'southward almost distinguishing feature, the inverted dupe-wing, was born.
Aerodynamically, the bent-fly mounted perpendicular low on the fuselage made a lot of sense. Figuring out how to build the airplane'due south structure was another technology challenge. Vought built a a special large jig to enable the wing's centre section and lower fuselage to be built every bit one unit. The effect was an extremely strong structure.
The gull wing configuration had some other advantage. It enabled the designers to put the airplane's armament outside the landing gear assembly in the folding section of the wing. This enabled the design team to put the big oil coolers in the wing roots, shut to the engine.
The image Corsair had provisions for a .xxx and .l quotient motorcar guns in the nose and a .l quotient gun in each wing. Lessons from the air state of war in Europe dictated a alter to 6 .50s, three in each wing. Later, 300 F4U-5s were built with 2 20mm cannon in each wing. Still, well-nigh pilots (and the Navy and Marine Corps) preferred the half dozen .50 caliber guns, each with 400 rounds per gun. With each weapon firing at nigh 600 rounds per infinitesimal, this arrangement gave the pilot xl seconds of ammunition, which was far more any of its potential opponents.
To reduce fourth dimension and go with proven components, the layout for the horizontal and vertical tails were borrowed from the OS2U-1 Kingfisher floatplane, which was already in production. And, because Vought wanted to make the aeroplane every bit fast as possible, the exhaust stacks were designed to provide a modest amount of thrust.
The showtime production contract for 584 Corsairs was awarded on June 30, 1941. The beginning F4U-one was delivered to the U.South. Navy on July 31, 1942. Unknown to Vought, the Navy had fabricated the Marines the priority recipient for the new fighters, which were destined to go to Guadalcanal where Corps aviators flew their start combat mission in the Corsair on Feb xiii, 1943.
Even before Corsairs were sent to Guadalcanal, the Navy and the Marine Corps knew they had a world beater. The fighting in the Solomons was withal fierce and the Navy wanted to get the Corsair into action where pilots could have advantage of its performance and range.
Carrier landings in the original Corsairs proved to be a challenge even though the fighter passed its initial flattop trials. All the same one time on board and in the hands Navy fliers, the accident charge per unit soared. It was discovered that compression and rebound on the landing gear struts was much too stiff causing the airplane to bounce dangerously on touchdown.
Also, the Corsair's long olfactory organ made it harder to see forward during have-offs and landings. The Royal Navy suggested the U.Due south. Navy use a more curved approach and so that the pilots could better run into the deck and the landing signal officer. Some other modification to improve visibility in the landing blueprint was increasing the top of the rails so the pilot could enhance his seat to go a amend view over the long nose.
A Vought design attempt known as "Program Dog" gave the principal landing gear struts a longer stroke with lower rebound ratios solved the trend of the airplane to bounciness on landing. Other modifications to the cowl flap actuators stopped them from leaking and spraying fluid over the canopy.
By 1944, the Corsair was beingness deployed in the Pacific in ever-increasing numbers, both equally a state-based fighter-bomber with the U.S. Marines and a carrier-based Navy shipping. Japanese pilots chop-chop learned to fear it. They dubbed the F4U Whistling Expiry. While the Mitsubishi Zero could still turn inside the Corsair, the rugged F4U was more than than 50 one thousand.p.h. faster than the A6M, had a better scroll rate and could outclimb the Japanese fighter by a wide margin. The Corsair's performance enabled pilots to option and choose when and how to engage enemy shipping.
Against the Zero, Corsairs scored 2,129 aeriform victories with just 189 losses. That'due south an 11:1 ratio that's bested but by the Hellcat'due south 19:ane.
Ultimately, the Majestic Navy's Fleet Air Arm took delivery of two,012 Corsairs as opposed to 584 Hellcats. Most of the Royal Navy Corsairs flew from British carriers in the Pacific in the latter stages of the war. Those that survived the war were returned to the U.Southward. Navy in late 1945 and early on 1946.
Hither are 12 facts well-nigh the F4U you may non know.
On May 29, 1940, the XF4U-i made its maiden flying, more than than two years before the F4F Hellcat and Northward American P-51 Mustang flew.
On a test flight on October 1, 1940, the prototype XF4U-1 flew at 404 m.p.h. making the Corsair the first U.S. single-engine airplane to exceed 400 thousand.p.h. in level flight.
The F4U was in product longer than any other World War Two piston engine fighter. Product began in 1941 and ended in 1953 at the determination of the Korean State of war. In all, 15,575 were built.
To give the Corsair the best roll rate, Vought engineers made the original ailerons out of wood. Every bit flight testing progressed, the ailerons were whittled, sanded and shaped to provide improved response and maneuverability. Afterwards, Vought perfected the tooling to make ailerons out of aluminum.
In mid-1944, Charles Lindbergh served every bit a technical representative to Vought and the Navy in tests that proved that the Corsair's bombload could safely be doubled from 2,000 to 4,000 pounds. To put this in perspective, the normal bomb load of the B-25 , B-26 and the de Havilland Mosquito was 4,000 lbs.
Three companies built the Corsair – Vought, Brewster and Goodyear. The latter fabricated the largest number of Corsairs.
One Marine pilot showed that the F4U's massive propeller could be a weapon in its own right. During the campaign in Okinawa, R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 suffered a gun malfunction in a loftier-altitude engagement while trying to shoot down a Japanese Dinah reconnaissance plane. Unable shoot the target downwards, Klingman used his Corsair'due south prop blades to shred the enemy's tail assembly. Despite damaging his own plane in the assault, the Marine managed to make it back to base, subsequently which he was awarded the Navy Cantankerous .
T he Corsair was equipped with a radar and filled the function of a carrier and country-based night fighter through to the finish of Korea. To accommodate the radar in the starboard wing, ane of the .l caliber machine guns was deleted. Ultimately, 214 of these night fighters were built.
A special version to fly and fight in the Arctic was congenital with deicing boots on the wings and a heated propeller. Designated the F4U-NL, 72 models were built and 29 converted from the F4U-5N night-fighter variant.
A U.S. Marine Corps Corsair shot down a MiG-fifteen in during the Korean War. French Navy Corsairs flew in combat used in Algeria, Tunisia, the Suez Crunch in 1956 too as in Indochina. The French Navy flew them until 1964 when they transitioned to jets.
A Honduran Air Force Corsair made the last air-to-air impale past a World War II piston engine fighter on July nineteen, 1969. During the Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, this date, a Honduran F4U shot down an El Salvadorian Air Force Mustang along with 2 other Corsairs. Corsairs were operated past the Honduran Air Force until 1979 which was the last country'southward air strength to fly the airplane.
There are well over 100 remaining Corsairs yet in existence, many of which continue to wing. Click hither for a total listing of surviving aircraft .
Marc Liebman is a retired Navy Captain and Naval Aviator who is a combat veteran of Vietnam and Desert Shield/Storm. He is also an amateur military historian and four of his nine novels became Amazon #one Best Sellers.
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Source: https://militaryhistorynow.com/2021/07/17/the-f4u-corsair-a-brief-history-of-americas-legendary-gull-winged-fighter/
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