2007 AirPower Over Hampton Roads - F4U Corsair - Part 1

[AmericanPatriot957]

The only US Navy ace in the Korea War Lt. Guy Bordelon from the USS Princeton (CV-37) had 5 confirmed kills flying in a F4U-5N. Similar to the on in this video

[JackFlemingFan]

Excellent!

[viperBSG]

OMG! An F4U-5n Corsair! Awesome man!

[RenerDeCastro]

the corsair was developed even before the hellcat.the first corsair prototype was flown in 1941

[newbonne]

Your welcome. The bent wing also improves the aerodynamics where the wing attaches to the fuselage. However, the plane is not as hard to fly as it is hard to land. This is because the left wing stalls first. Since the pilot was landing at stall speed, if his speed dropped below stall, this meant a hard landing, either collapsing the left landing gear, or bouncing the plane off the arresting cable, causing the plane to go off the end of the carrier.

[newbonne]

The gull wing design allowed that big prop to clear the runway while the plane is taxiing, while keeping the length of the landing gear reasonably short to prevent the gear from collapsing during a carrier landing

[TheCottonTop]

Thanks for repeating exactly what the anouncer was saying buddy. The wing was also designed this way to decrease the deck space needed on a carrier. Also to improve maneuverablity as far as pitch and roll. But the plain was very easy to loose control of by a novice or over confident pilot.

[viperBSG]

TheCottonTop,It wasn't know as the Ensign Eliminator for nothing.Right?

[flyurway]

Fine machine! Is it just me or did I just hear the announcer giving the wrong explanation for the gull wing design? I've always heard-and from very good sources-the ONLY reason for the gull wing was to keep the big prop from hitting the ground and keeping the gear short enough to be able to retract.

[RichKolasa]

I believe the designers are on record differently. I believe it was all about reducing induced drag, or at least mostly.

Nice video Steve.

[flyurway]

Nope. Do your homework. They used the P&W Double Wasp, 2804 ci which put out over 1800 hp. With all that power they needed a big prop (over 13'). But to clear the ground you either needed long, flimsy landing gear (also requiring more space in the wing) or you had to do what they ultimately did..."bend" the wing down into the inverted gull wing that you see now. As it was, they did ultimately see some aerodynamic improvement but it wasn't the original reason for the design. Looks bad-ass though!