Vought F4U-1 Biplane fighter
It is well known
that at one time the Grumman F4F Wildcat was considered as a monoplane.
After the failure of the Brewster F2A Buffalo however Grumman decided
to revert the design back to a monoplane producing the highly
successful Wildcat. What is less well known is that Vought also
initially laid out their new carrier fighter, the F4U, as a monoplane.
When they learned about the Buffalo and Wildcat however, they switched
to a biplane layout.
This resulted in a
number of challenges however as the F4U was a big and heavy plane and
the two metal wings and heavy armament meant a lot of weight and there
was no available engine with enough power. Vought discussed this with
Pratt & Whitney and they came up with the idea of coupling up two
Double Wasp engines to produce a 36 cylinder radial engine producing
4,000 hp.
This engine was to
become known as the Quad Wasp and it was used in the F4U Corsair
biplane fighter driving two contra-rotating four bladed propellers. The
prototype XF4U-1 first flew in May 1940 and performance was excellent.
However the aircraft had rather limited range due to the fuel
consumption of the big engine. Also the view from the cockpit was
limited during landing due to the two big wings. Initial cooling
problems with the big four row engine were solved by introducing a
second set of cooling louvres to the cowling.
The aircraft carries
a total of twelve 0.50 inch machine guns and could carry various load
of bombs and rockets under the lower wing.
The second prototype
features a redesigned upper wing carrying more fuel which alleviated
the range problem. The poor visibility however remained a problem
throughout the service life or the Corsair. The F4U-2 features a raised
cockpit to enhance visibility from the cockpit.
The type was used by
the US Navy throughout the forties. It never saw combat as the USA was
able to keep out of the war in Europe. Initially it was meant to be
replaced by the Grumman F6F Hellcat and F8F Bearcat but after the
perceived threat of the Japanese to the USA did not materialize the
development of these was halted and the F4U was kept in service. The
last F4U (a F4U-8 model) was taken out of active duty on the 2nd of
April 1952.
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Last updated: 04/07/2017