Typhoon , F4U-1 comparison

Slaterat, I think the good reputation of the Corsair has a lot to do with the fact that when the Corsair was designed (in 1938) ship board fighters were not supposed to be able to compete with land based fighters. Vought stuck their necks out and designed a cutting edge fighter that although burdened with some compromises that hindered it early in it's career in ship board operations eventually became the most successful piston engined ship board fighter-fighter bomber in history. Rex Barber, a noted USAAF fighter pilot said that if the US had had to produce only one type of fighter bomber, it should have been the Corsair. It had good range, good climb, good vmax at most practical altitudes, could carry a big load, was durable and tough, was an excellent dive bomber and I believe what is not generally known is that it was a very maneuverable air craft. I don't mean in sustained turn rate but it reportedly was excellent in roll and it's overall excellent control modulation made it, in the words of an AAF fighter pilot at the 1944 Fighter Meet, "It is a tough competitor in anything involving maneuvering." The design work began in 1938. I do not know what that face is doing up there.

I would have to agree with those who thought the reason the F4U became "iconic" was the overall excellent performance of a
carrier based fighter in a time where carrier based fighters exhibited less than optimal overall performance. I suppose Rex Beisel
hit a "sweet spot" performance-wise. I would have liked to have seen what he could have done with a land based variant...

davebender said:

AA Weapons

If this is correct then total IJA light flak production from 1938 to 1945 was only about 3,000 weapons. Furthermore 80% of IJA light flak had a ROF of only 300 rounds per minute. The numbers aren't even close compared to the Heer. Furthermore German army light flak was qualitatively superior for the most part.

I don't doubt that F4U pilots considered IJA flak to be dangerous. But Typhoon and P-47 fighter-bombers faced German flak that was much worse. So it would not be fair to compare loss rates to ground fire between CAS aircraft that fought in Europe and those that fought in the Pacific.

Click to expand...

I don't know about production numbers, but the IJA 20mm only had a 20 round box which means that you have a lot of reloading to do. The practical ROF was only 120 rounds/min.
The German 20mm had a practical ROF of about 200-220 rpm and there were a lot of them. IJA AA guns were thin on the ground.

Gentlemen,

When introduced in early 1943, the F4U out performed every plane in the theater (Wildcat, P-40, P-39 and early P-38) while the Typhoon didn't : Spitfire and FW 190 were, as far as I know, better in air combat. That makes, IMHO, a difference in the way a plane enters in history.

not to mention length of service.....