Aircraft History and Stats

 The Making of the Hog

The F4U-1D could be described as a classic case of triumph snatched from the jaws of disaster.  Designed by Beisel and Sikorsky, the F4U is regarded by many as one of the greatest combat aircraft in history, and was in production for a longer period of time than any US fighter other than the F4 Phantom. As conceived it was intended to mount the most powerful engine, and biggest propeller, of any fighter in existence, and the prototype was the first US combat aircraft to exceed 400mph.  This was the reason for the bent wing, to mount the large prop the main undercarriage had to be very long to give adequate ground clearance for the propeller.  However, this meant the 'gear would be too long to fold into the wings.  The solution was to use an inverted gull wing to achieve ground clearance for the prop and keep the main undercarriage legs from having to be too long.

There were still problems though.  The extraordinarily long nose inflicted poor visibility for the pilot when landing and take off.   The undercarriage, though shortened, occasionally broke and the Corsair had a strong tendency to bounce on landing.  All these faults were greatly exaggerated when the aircraft was operating from carriers.  As a result the US Navy at first rejected it for shipboard operation. Nonetheless the F4U was adopted by the Marine Corps and quickly demonstrated its effectiveness.

 The US Navy finally adopted the F4U as a shipboard fighter-bomber in November 1944, and by early 1945 large numbers were operating from the fast carriers of the Pacific Fleet - although the longer-established and very capable Grumman F6F Hellcat remained somewhat more numerous aboard the carriers right up to the war's end.

The F4U-1D is basically a follow on to the very successful F4U-1A version. There are some interesting differences between the two though. For one thing, the -1D was the first type to be used regularly from aircraft carriers. Externally, they can be told apart by the twin racks between the gear legs. These racks could hold either drop tanks or bombs. The -1D was also able to carry underwing rockets that the -1A could not. Most -1Ds had no extra framing in the canopy.