Corsair
More than a gull wing warbird
One of America's most popular WWII fighters is the Chance Vought Corsair. With its "bent wing" configuration, the Corsair became an extremely identifiable aircraft to the enemy and later to the American airshow public. The history of the Corsair extends back to before America's entry into the Second World War. In June 1938, the U.S. Navy signed a contract for a prototype, the XF4U-1. After mock-up inspection in February 1939, construction of the XF4U-1 went ahead quickly. It was powered by a new engine, the XR-2800-4, which was rated at 1805 hp. The Corsair’s maiden flight was flown by Lyman A. Bullard Jr., on May 29, 1940.
That October, the XF4U-1 made a flight from Stratford, CT to Hartford, CT with an average ground speed of 404 mph. It was the first U.S. fighter to fly faster than 400mph with a full military load in level flight. But as in any new design, there were problems; control surfaces and access panels were damaged in high speed dives, spin recovery standards had to be relaxed, and the Corsair had a propensity to drop a wing when it stalled, a critical factor for a shipboard fighter which would have to make perilous deck landings.
The design and development of the F4U Corsair can be credited largely to the innovative talent of Rex Buren Beisel. The only son of a coal miner, Rex Beisel grew up poor with his family having to live in a tent during his early years. He helped his family, working in carpentry which taught him how to think in the abstract. Beisel overcame the challenges that life presented and graduated from the University of Washington in 1916. Armed with a Bachelor of Science degree and a position in an honorary engineering fraternity he was offered a job with the Navy’s Bureau of Construction and Repair, which became part of the Bureau of Aeronautics in 1921, the forerunner of today’s Naval Air Systems Command.
Rex Beisel in the multicolored tie in 1944 Credit: Smithsonian Museum
With no previous aeronautical experience, no textbooks and no data about aircraft design, Beisel began learning by trial and error. He learned a great deal about hydrodynamics and aerodynamics and became one of the first certified aeronautical engineers in the U.S. in November 1919. He was the project engineer for the TS-1, the Navy’s first single-seat fighter specifically designed to fly from a ship. He helped convert four TS-1s into racing planes for the 1922 Curtiss Marine Trophy Race. In 1923, after accepting an invitation from Glenn Curtiss to build Pulitzer Trophy racers for the Navy and the Army, the 29-year-old Beisel became the chief engineer of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.
Rex Beisel was the project manager for the Navy’s first single seat fighter the TS-1. Credit Navy Historical Center
The aeronautical industry suffered during the depression causing significant consolidation but Beisel found his way to become the Assistant Chief Engineer of the Chance Vought division of United Aircraft Corporation in 1931. He was busy designing Navy aircraft at Vought throughout the 1930s, including the SBU-1 Scout/Dive Bomber, ordered by the Navy in 1934. This was the first airplane of its type to exceed 200 mph and the speed was credited to the installation of adjustable engine cowl flaps designed by Beisel. In February 1938, the U.S. Navy published a requirement for a new, high-performance, carrier-based fighter.
The Navy was already considering replacements to the Grumman F4F Wildcat and Brewster F2A Buffalo. These aircraft were only in the test and development stage but already out-of-date by the impending standards of WWII. Vought engineers, lead by Beisel, decided on an airframe that would carry the most powerful engine and the largest diameter propeller ever built. Two design proposals were submitted to the U.S. Navy; one based on Pratt & Whitney's 14-cylinder R-1830 radial engine, and one, the V-166B, based on Pratt & Whitney's latest engine, the 2,000 hp, 18-cylinder R-2800 Double Wasp engine. The new double Wasp engine was powered by a huge, 13' 4" diameter Hamilton Standard 3-bladed propeller. It was the largest engine available for a fighter airplane at the time.
The XF4U, the prototype aircraft of the Corsair. Credit: US Navy Archives
The colossal propeller required more ground clearance than standard landing struts provided. The inventive team wanted to avoid a very high nose high attitude by using long landing gear struts and decided on an inverted gull wing design. It used shorter, lighter landing gear struts mounted at the low point of the wing to provide clearance for this gigantic prop. The overall design provided a clean right-angle wing-to- fuselage intersection with short, rearward retracting and totally enclosed landing gear. The low wing hinge point allowed the outer panels to be folded up into a compact package. Sporting internally wing-mounted machine guns, clean air intakes and a flush riveted and spot welded airframe, the Corsair was designed to be the fastest fighter aircraft to date. The aircraft nose still maintained a high attitude on the ground but it was a dilemma that could be accommodated.
The inverted gull wing used by the Corsair was not unique. The German "Stuka" dive bomber had a similar wing design but the F4U Corsair design used retractable landing gear versus the Stuka’s fixed landing gear - less drag, more speed. The Navy ordered a prototype based on the Beisel’s Vought Aircraft design on June 11, 1938. Vought production moved to Stratford, CT the following year and merged with the Sikorsky facility helping to justify the underutilized Stratford plant. It was there that the new XF4U-1 Corsair was born. The U.S. Navy ordered 585 production F4U-1 Corsairs on June 30, 1941 with production contracts going to Vought and licensed to Goodyear Aircraft Corporation and the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation. Vought retained the overall design responsibility for the aircraft.
An earlier Vought aircraft was sometimes called Corsair. It was officially the SB2U Vindicator (V-156), a slow Scout Dive Bomber. It was Vought Aircraft’s first monoplane and was produced for the French as the V-156-F. When France was overrun by the Germans in 1940, the Vindicator and sometimes called Corsair V-156-F were flown by Germans against the British. In a 1940 newspaper, Americans learned about how their support of governments at war could be dangerous: “The Air Ministry, disclosed that the Germans are using American Chance-Vought-156 bomber planes, which had been sold to Britain's late ally, France, in their attacks on Britain. Known as "Corsair" V-156 it’s a model identical to the one used in the United States Navy but with many exclusive features removed.
The French Corsair (SB2U Vindicator V-156F)
“It is manufactured by the Vought-Sikorsky division of the United Aircraft Corp. Two of the American-made planes were shot down and a third crippled by British Spitfire fighters, asserted to be the fastest military planes in the world, in fighting yesterday. The Chance-Vought planes were used as dive bombers. Spitfire fighters outnumbered them yesterday, accompanied by German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters. At the first meeting, one Chance-Vought and two Messerschmitts crashed into the sea, early in the night, and a second Chance-Vought, attacked by a British sergeant-pilot in a Spitfire, fell in a spin.” The contract with France for these aircraft was taken over by Britain after France’s capitulation in June 1940.
Although the U.S. Navy and Vought knew they had a winner with the F4U Corsair, it would be a long and tortuous process before the fighter's deployment on aircraft carriers. It wasn’t only the U.S. Navy that would make the Corsair famous. The U.S. Marine Corps, the Royal Navy and the New Zealand Air Force used the aircraft in WWII and later it was successful shooting down MIG jets in the Korean War. Over the next couple of months we’ll follow the development and deployment of the Corsair which would be built in numerous variants while becoming the longest production run of any piston-engine fighter. Its pilots and mechanics continue to deserve our thanks.
By John Cilio He is a freelance writer and aviation historian. Contact him: questions@vintageflyer.com