Vought C2U Corsair

In 1944 the US Navy got information on the Japanese I-400 class of submarines, which were equiped with a hangar and could launch the Aichi M6A seaplane. The US Navy decided to copy the concept and ordered 2 special Gato class submarines which were 10 meters longer at 105m and featured a water tight hanagr in fromt of the conning tower. These boats were called the Beluga class To equip the Beluga subs, the Navy needed a high performance seaplane. The Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk was just entering service but was considered to light and low powered to service as an attack aircraft.

The Navy turned to Vought to create a seaplane version of the F4U Corsair. Vought proposed two designs. One was a straight seaplane version of the Corsair with one central float and the undercarriage removed. The second design featured a new straight wing as the gull wing design of the F4U was not needed when using floats. For the trials, the first variant was selected and five production Corsairs were converted by Vought to S2U Corsairs. Trials were held woth the aircraft and they performed adequatly although the central float caused a significant drop in top speed and range. It was planned to produce the straight wing variant as the S3U as the operational variant. However in 1945 the Beluga project was cancelled and the half completed submarines scrapped. As the Navy had enough F4U Corsairs available the five S2Us were also scrapped.

Kit: 1/72 Revell