F4U F6F payload

[renrich]

Both the F4U and F6F had bigger wings and lower wing loading than the P47 because of the demands of carrier operations and with the same engine and lighter overall weight could lift more. The P47N could lift a lot of weight because of a bigger wing but that wing carried a lot of fuel so the full fuel load could not be carried if a large ordnance load was desired. The F4U was known to have carried a bomb load of 4000 pounds. The standard load with the F4U1D was 2000 pounds.

The F4U was a very good dive bomber, almost as accurate as the SBD. Two reasons were that it was very stable and responsive in a dive and it also had dive brakes. Neither P47 or F6F had this feature. The F4U's dive brakes were the landing gear which could be lowered partially. The F4U could dive bomb at angles up to 85 degrees whereas the SBD was most effective at 70 degrees. The SBD was only about ten per cent more accurate than the F4U. Both were very accurate at release altitudes up to 3000 feet. Bombing on a 25 foot circle, the SBD could expect to get 1.4% direct hits while the F4U could get 1.1% direct hits. Both aircraft exceeded 50% direct hits on 200 foot targets.

Above info from "Corsair" by Barrett Tillman.

 

[davebender]

That's consideraby more accurate then the P47 (50% bomb hits on 360 foot target).

 

[renrich]

Attacking 250 foot circles the SBD scored 75.1% and the F4U 68.2%. The F4U also excelled at making and delivering ice cream. VMF 122 devised two underwing ice cream machines which each provided 5 gallons of ice cream. The machines had a shaft which was turned by a wind driven propellor. The Corsair flew at 30-33000 feet at a steady 200 knots and then descended at 8000 feet per minute to keep the ice cream from melting. The Corsair was truly a multi purpose AC.

 

[davebender]

It sounds like VMF 122 had too much free time on their hands. Perhaps they should have been moved closer to the front line.

 

[renrich]

VMF122 was part of MAG-11 and was stationed in the Palaus. Operation Freeze was scheduled every day at 1400 and a different pilot flew every day. The mission had three components. First was to manufacture ten gallons of ice cream. Second was to give pilots high altitude engine operation and oxygen tests and third was to get the Japanese to waste some large caliber AA shells. Their shells were ineffective above 28000 feet.