Why does the F4U Corsair have so many designations?

Unto the Breach ^ | July 10, 2023 | Chris Carter

[PLMerite]

[Karliner]

I was told by a few Korean war vets the Corsair saved a lot of lives..and killed a few also:

[Yo-Yo]

The nose was so long because the engine drove a huge propeller. Elevating the prop is also why they gave the Corsair inverted gull wings.

Agreed, but another reason why the nose looks so long is because the cockpit was moved rearward so the main fuselage fuel tank could be installed directly over the center of gravity, lessening trim changes as fuel was consumed.

[JBW1949]

Isn’t that the plane Pappy Boyington flew?????

[gidewey52]

Best looking prop plane ever.

Y’all do watch Black Sheep Squadron on H&I on Saturday nights, right?

[lapsus calami]

 

 

Folk I know called them SpeedyD's - the only nickname I've ever heard for them. Pretty speedy when they were diving.

 

 

[fugazi]

What’s that page from, Jane’s? I’ve got the 1945-46 reprint, but it doesn’t have the nice cutaway drawing.

[Grimmy]

That’s because it was difficult to learn how to land the plane since on final, the pilot had to take the nose up enough to only see the landing strip from the side of the cockpit.

But once in combat, it was most definitely an enemy killer.

[NTHockey]

I was in VMF(122) out of MCAS Beaufort. The squadron transitioned from F8U-2 to F8U-2NE. NE standing for Night Electronic. Beautiful plane; but radar was a big maintenance nightmare.

[Yo-Yo]

What’s that page from, Jane’s? I’ve got the 1945-46 reprint, but it doesn’t have the nice cutaway drawing.

I have no idea. I just Googled "F4U Cutaway Drawing" and found one with decent detail.

[Yo-Yo]

What’s that page from, Jane’s?

The website where I "borrowed" the cutaway drawing was this:

https://history.scale-model-aircraft.com/wwii-aviation/chance-vought-f4u-corsair

And that page lists as one of it's sources the book "Fighters 1939-45: Attack and Training Aircraft." The book's Amazon page:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0304363472/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0304363472&linkCode=as2&tag=scalmodeair01-20

Hope this helps.

[broken_clock]

Pappy and the Black Sheep?

[PLMerite]

Yes. He is in front, third from the right.

[PLMerite]

[Sirius Lee]

That’s got to be Pappy with the white shoes in the front and the flattened nose.

[T.B. Yoits]

I never appreciated why the long nose on the plane until I saw a good visualization of all the supercharger plumbing in there.

Yeah, that "butterfly" supercharger up front instead of the like the P-47s or P-38s that had the supercharger behind the pilot with the plumbing running back and forth from the engine up front.

[PLMerite]

"That’s got to be Pappy with the white shoes in the front and the flattened nose."

Yeah, he was a scrapper:

[Yo-Yo]

What’s that page from, Jane’s?

Duh @ me. The caption under the cutaway drawing at the source website says "image source: An Illustrated Anatomy Of the World's Fighters" and gives a link to the Amazon page for the booik:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861011058/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0861011058&linkCode=as2&tag=fit02e-20&linkId=EVJITGW4EV3OKXVT

[doorgunner69]

The prop and gull wing fix are a separate issue. There is a huge amount of super charger systems behind the engine and the main fuel tank is in front of the pilot.

[Taxman]

The F-8 “Crusader” was the Ensign killer!