F 4U Corsair in Action

In February of 1938, the U.S. Navy opened design competition for a high speed, high alti­tude fighter aircraft. Headed by Rex Biesel, Vought's chief engineer, the company set out to produce the finest Naval fighter aircraft of its day. What emerged was the XF4U-1. The Chance Vought XF4U-1 was a single-scat, single-engine monoplane fighter aircraft which was to be powered by a 1,800 hp Pratt & Whitney XR-2800-2 Wasp double row eigh­teen cylinder air-cooled radial engine. With this power plant it would be the fastest, most powerful aircraft of its type in the world. It was named the Corsair, carrying on a tradition set by at least two other Vought-produced aircraft, which had previously carried the name. The most obvious innovation the design team incorporated into the XF4U-1 was the grace­ful and efficient inverted gull wing. This wing design allowed the team to use a thirteen foot three blade Hamilton Standard propeller, white allowing the Corsair to utilize landing gear of "normal" length. During retraction the landing gear rotated 90 degrees, laying flush within the wing. In February of 1939 Vought presented the Navy with a full scale plywood mock-up of the Corsair design. Favorably impressed, the Navy gave the go-ahead to construct the actu­al prototype aircraft and assigned it BuNo 1443.

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