Corsairs White 735 and 795

[lackstone]

Looking to model white 735 and have a question. The antenna masts for both aircraft are not visible in the linked pic. The wire on 735 appears to be attached to the rudder and extending forward to the fuselage terminal but that's all I see. Was there a field modification removing the masts?

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Corsair/VMF214/images/Vought-F4U-1A-Corsair-VMF-214-White-735-BuNo-17735-and-795-BuNo-17795-Bougainville-1944-01.jpg

Thanks,

 

[Dana Bell]

By strange coincidence, another member asked the same question earlier today - see this thread:

Corsair White 735 and 795

Going through some pics of this airplane for a model project I notice that neither airplane appears to have antenna masts. Thinking of rendering a 1/48 of 735 and this pic seems to validate building it sans antenna masts. Is there any tech info regarding the missing masts...

ww2aircraft.net

In short, they almost all started with masts, but the masts broke off in service use. Each unit needed to find its own means of attaching the MHF antenna wire to the aft fuselage and tail or directly to the wingtips.

Cheers,



Dana

 

[lackstone]

Thank you for your response Dana. I will take the model to completion without the masts but I'm curious - were they superfluous to proper operation of the radios? Was the wire from the rudder to the fuselage connection sufficient? If so, why were the masts retained after field service proved them unnecessary? And, yes, another poster and I were discussing the topic off the board. Obviously he beat me to posting it.

 

[Wurger]

It seems that the 735 had the antenna mast. The enlarged shot reveals two light spots one in the place where the mast should be and the second on where the antenna wire insulator was.

Regarding the 795 I'm not sure but the enlraged image shows someting that looks like the mast there. But the qulity of the basic picture isn't the great.

 

[Dana Bell]

Hi Lackstone,

No, those radios and masts were critical to normal operations. The mast not only gave the proper length of wire for medium/high frequencies, but it kept the wire out of the way as ground crews moved around the aircraft. The first masts were 39-1/4 inch-high plastic; second were cut down to 33-1/4 inches. Third masts were metal 32-1/2 inches, which were then cut down to 24 inches. This was followed by a 24-inch composite mast of aluminum and plastic. The final mast was similar, but relied on a thicker gauge aluminum.

All of these masts but the last continued to break, and I have some doubts about the last one! Tommy's blog (see the earlier link) shows some of the more common attempts at rigging the mastless wire - only the wire to the small mast behind the left wing pitot tube was a factory installation, and that came during the search for a stronger mast. (Linked to the wingtip, the antenna wire drooped to the ground whenever the wings were folded, creating an unneeded tripping hazard.

Anyway, it seems 883 had that gawd-awful wingtip rig. In these two photos you can see the wire starting at the insulator just aft of the canopy, then moving between two insulators (attached to the VHF antena mast and tail fin) to a short mast at the left wingtip. If you go with this rig, be careful handling you model - tyour wire can break as easily as the originals did!

Anyhow, I hope this helps with your kit - enjoy the build!

Cheers,




Dana

 

[Wurger]