The Buttonville Flying Club COPA Flight 44

The Airplane of the Day is the Chance Vought F-4U Corsair.
 
Designed by Tex Beisel and the Vought design team, the Corsair was equipped with the largest engine available at the time, the 2,000 hp (1,490 kW) 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial.  In order to derive as much power as possible, a large 13 foot, 4 inch Hydromatic three-blade propeller was used, made by Hamilton Standard. The specifications requested, by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in 1938, that the aircraft needed to operate from Aircraft Carriers which led the design team to incorporate a folding wing.
 
To accommodate a folding wing, the designers considered retracting the main landing gear rearward, but for the chord of wing selected, it was difficult to fit undercarriage struts long enough to provide sufficient clearance for the large propeller. Their solution was an inverted gull wing, a similar layout to the one used by Germany's Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber, considerably shortening the length of the main gear legs. The anhedral of the wing's center-section also permitted the wing and fuselage to meet at the optimum angle for minimizing drag, without the need for wing root fairings. Offsetting these benefits, the bent wing was more difficult to construct and weighed more than a straight one.
 
The long nose of the Corsair made a wide circling approach to landing an absolute necessity, just as it dictated careful “S” taxiing when finally on the ground. The F4U-5N version of the Corsair could hit a staggering 470 mph at 26, 800 feet and cruise for 1,120 miles at 227 mph.
 
Corsairs served with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, Fleet Air Arm, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, as well the French Navy Aeronavale and other services postwar. It quickly became the most capable carrier-based fighter-bomber of World War II. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear (as the FG-1) and Brewster (as the F3A-1). From the first prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs were manufactured by Vought, in 16 separate models.
 

 
 
General characteristics
 
F4U-1A
Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 33 ft 4 in (10.1 m)
Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.5 m)
Height: 16 ft 1 in (4.90 m)
Wing area: 314 ft2 (29.17 m2)
Empty weight: 8,982 lb (4,073 kg)
Loaded weight: 14,000 lb (6,300 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-8W radial engine, 2,250 hp (1,678 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 425 mph (369 kn, 684 km/h)
Range: 1,015 mi (882 nmi, 1,634 km)
Service ceiling: 36,900 ft (11,200 m)
Rate of climb: 3,180 ft/min (16.2 m/s)
Armament
Guns: 4 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, 400 rpg and 2 × 0.50 in Browning M2 machine guns, 375 rpg
Rockets: 4 × 5 in (12.7 cm) High Velocity Aircraft Rockets and/or
Bombs: 2,000 pounds (910 kg)
 
F4U-4
Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 33 ft 8 in (10.2 m)
Wingspan: 41 ft 0 in (12.5 m)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)
Empty weight: 9,205 lb (4,174 kg)
Loaded weight: 14,669 lb (6,653 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W radial engine, 2,450 hp (1,827 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 446 mph (388 kn, 718 km/h)
Range: 1,005 mi (873 nmi, 1,618 km)
Service ceiling: 41,500 ft (12,649 m)
Rate of climb: 3,870 ft/min (19.7 m/s)
Armament
Guns:   6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns, 400 rpg or
4 × 20 millimetres (0.79 in) AN/M2 cannons
Rockets: 8 × 5 in (12.7 cm) high velocity aircraft rockets and/or
Bombs: 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg)