A little trivia for you guys. How many of you knew that all of the Corsairs until the
F4U-5 had part of the outboard wing panels covered with fabric????
I think it was the only first line U.S. fighter that had fabric on part of the wings
From a flyoff between the P-51B and a F4U-1
Four sentences from the report summarize the findings of the pilots who flew both types.
“In late January and early February 1944, the U.S. Navy conducted a comparison of both airplanes at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland.” By Marc Liebman U.S. ARMY AIR Force pilots who flew the...
militaryhistorynow.com
The report states:
- It is concluded that, in general:
- There is little to choose between the P-51B and F4U-1 airplane in speed between sea level and 25,000 feet, and that above 25,000 feet, the P-51B is superior.
- That the F4U-1 is everywhere considerably superior in climb, at any comparable loading and superior in all other performance elements except diving speed.
- The F4U-1 is everywhere superior in maneuverability and response.
- With equal endurance, the F4U carries about 86% more armament and that it is a better gun platform.
- In summary, the F4U-1 airplane appears to be the superior fighter for Naval or Marine employment, either land for ship-based except in the case where substantially all the fighting occurs above 25,000.
Pretty strong stuff. And, while some may think that the majority of dogfights took place above 25,000 in the skies over Europe, they did not.
Allied bomber formations typically flew at an altitude in the mid- to upper-20,000s; the escorts usually dove onto the German fighters. As described in a
previous article in MilitaryHistoryNow.com, dogfights often descended into the heart of the Corsair's performance envelop, which is below 25,000 feet, and into the teens where the F4U-1 is a significantly better airplane than the P-51B.