23 Apr 2024, 02:27 [ UTC - 5; DST ]
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 06:39 |
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Joined: 12/22/07 Posts: 12893 Post Likes: +13315 Company: Midwest Chemtrails, LLC Location: KPTK (SE Michigan)
Aircraft: C205
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Attachment: 668FAF0D-4B54-470A-927F-A7BC4B85A5A4.jpeg
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_________________ Life is a DiY project.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 08:31 |
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Joined: 04/06/11 Posts: 7953 Post Likes: +3994
Aircraft: Warbirds
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237 gallon self sealing rubber fuel cell sits between the firewall and the cockpit. British Spitfire has fuel in the same place. Early production F4U also had a leading edge tank built into the outer wings. During combat you could purge the tanks with CO2 to reduce the fire hazard. F4U fuel system image grabbed from a manual in the Aircorpslibrary.com collection. Attachment: 74017B1D-9FD9-4FA3-9349-6193776DDA89.jpeg
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_________________ Be careful what you ask for, your mechanic wants to sleep at night.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 09:03 |
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Joined: 11/01/08 Posts: 2630 Post Likes: +648
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"Whistling Death" by Boone Guyton (Corsair test pilot) is a pretty good read if you want to learn about all things Corsair.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 09:52 |
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Joined: 01/01/11 Posts: 964 Post Likes: +599 Company: Well, it's UA now Location: Houston, TX
Aircraft: B-787 & C55
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Username Protected wrote: I was just reading about it. Apparently it needed more fuel, and the only place to put it was in a fuselage tank. They had to put the tank close to the CG, so they moved the cockpit back to accommodate it. Also by moving the cockpit back it inadvertently made the plane faster. They kind of stumbled on to the area rule of aircraft design. It allowed the drag curve to be spread out and not all concentrated at the wing/fuselage intersection.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 12:18 |
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Joined: 11/22/12 Posts: 2598 Post Likes: +2362 Company: Retired Location: Lynnwood, WA (KPAE)
Aircraft: 1993 Bonanza A36TN
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Username Protected wrote: I still haven’t heard what caused them to move the cockpit aft by 3 feet. Change in armament forced moving the fuel into the fuselage from the wings. The original armament, never installed on the prototype, was to be 2x0.30" guns in the cowling and 2x0.50" guns, one in each wing. Plus internal bays in the wings to carry mini aerial bombs to drop on formations of enemy bombers, a capability required by the Navy. (Maybe that didn't sound so crazy in 1938.) Fuel was in four wing tanks, a large main tank and a leading edge tank in each wing, none of them self-sealing. Reports coming back after the shooting started in Europe changed the Navy's thinking. The bomb bays in the wings went away. The guns changed to 6x0.50", all in the wings, taking up the space where the main wing tanks had been, so they were replaced with a single large self-sealing fuselage tank of the same capacity, 237 gallons, over the CG, between the engine and cockpit. That pushed the cockpit back 32". As Rich said, early production planes kept the (non-self-sealing) leading edge aux tanks but those went away later after the ability to carry drop tanks was added.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 17:18 |
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Joined: 08/30/17 Posts: 44 Post Likes: +117 Location: Palm Springs CA
Aircraft: CRJ, T-28
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Username Protected wrote: The drooped ailerons on the Corsair made it into production but were dropped after a few hundred were built. The early Birdcage Corsair that Vultures Row is restoring should, by serial number, be one of those still built with the drooped ailerons. It will be interesting to see if they put them in. Vulture’s Row just posted a Facebook update a few days ago with pics of the progress on the -1 Corsair. From the looks of the intricate parts being produced, I would guess that the droop ailerons will be operational. Attachment: E385593E-8E60-4738-B2C3-B64522028FBE.png
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 17:22 |
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Joined: 12/13/07 Posts: 2610 Post Likes: +2747 Location: DFW, TX (KGKY)
Aircraft: B55, PT-17, J3, SNJ
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Guyton's book outlines the hot mess that was getting the Corsair in fighting shape. Despite all the aggravation, when it did arrive, it was a formidable fighting machine. I still love this passage about Ike Kepford's epic tangle on February 19, 1944 from Tom Blackburn's Jolly Rogers. To me, it demonstrates the physical toll of fighting in these machines and shows off the capabilities of the airplane when flown by talented pilots: Quote: "Ike was late getting home - so late that we believed we would never be seeing him again. The last anyone had heard, he was being chase[d] north by three Zekes. Despite our universal exhaustion, all hands remained out on the flight line, not far from Ike's hardstand. We conjectured aimlessly about what might have happened after that last plaintive radio call. We all feared the worst.
"We literally could not believe our eyes when a single Hog marked '29' taxied in. We streamed out to the hardstand as the huge prop stopped and the grinning mechanics chocked the wheels. A pale and exhausted pilot wearing a sweat soaked flight suit struggled out of the cockpit with the plane captain's help. When Ike held up three fingers, we went into a frenzy. He had been in the air for 4.2 hours and returned with less than 40 gallons of avgas aboard."
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 18:00 |
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Joined: 10/22/08 Posts: 4846 Post Likes: +2618 Location: Sherman, Tx
Aircraft: 35-C33, A36
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Username Protected wrote: Despite all the aggravation, when it did arrive, it was a formidable fighting machine. ] Max has probably been gone west over twenty years. He flew in the WWII pacific theater and then a long career with The airlines. Rumor had it that he had a collection of WWII memorabilia that he liked to show fellow pilots….and much of it centered on the corsair. I’m sad that I couldn’t find the time to see his stuff. That said I did talk to him some about his service on more than one occasion. I don’t remember his exact words but it was something to the effect…. “The Corsair was a great airplane, we had confidence in it, we could take on the zero’s and win.” Iirc he had been in Wildcats previously. His face lit up…as he talked…about a machine that got him through the battles and home safely. Leldon
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 18:14 |
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Joined: 12/03/17 Posts: 8173 Post Likes: +8714 Location: Brevard, NC
Aircraft: Lancair LNC2 - SOLD
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Username Protected wrote: ...large self-sealing fuselage tank My Great Uncle - Frank Cooper - invented the self-sealing tanks while working for Goodyear in Akron.
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Post subject: Re: F4U Corsair visibility Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 18:43 |
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Joined: 04/06/11 Posts: 7953 Post Likes: +3994
Aircraft: Warbirds
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Username Protected wrote: ...large self-sealing fuselage tank My Great Uncle - Frank Cooper - invented the self-sealing tanks while working for Goodyear in Akron. Cool info. They are heavy as heck. Each cell in a P-51 weighs over 100 lbs for the rubber itself. 100 lbs of rubber to hold 93 gallons of fuel in each wing. If they sit dry for decades they tend to come apart if you fuel them. The composition is layers of natural rubber sandwiched by layers of blended rubber. The blended rubber sit on the inside and outside being exposed to atmosphere and fuel. The natural rubber sit encased. If a projectile penetrates through the fuel will touch the natural rubber which will expand greatly. This seals, to whatever degree depending on the breach, and will at least stem flow reducing the loss and risks associated with it. I've dealt with making replacements for P-51, P-38 and a few others using more modern, and thin, cell material. Then you need to attach them to have them take the proper shape by hangers or filling with foam. I used to deal with Henry Krug who came from Firestone in So Cal during the war.
_________________ Be careful what you ask for, your mechanic wants to sleep at night.
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