renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
In looking at a website posted by some member, thankfully, about a AAF bomb group, most of the missions in the early going in 1942-43, were flown at around 20000 feet. The F4U1 had very good performance at 20000 feet and was used extensively as the high cover on bombing raids in the Pacific along with the P38. It was only after the missions began to go deep into Germany that they began to be flown at altitudes above 20000 feet(24000-29000 feet) apparently because of the flak concentrations. If you look at the combat radius of the F4U1 versus the P47C on internal fuel, the Corsair was somewhat better in that respect and could have easily carried an additional 300 gallons in drop tanks and would not have needed a lot of runway to get off the ground contrary to the P47. The Corsair would not have been perfect as an escort fighter but the FW190, possibly the best LW fighter of that period was not all that adept above 20000 feet either.