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F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Thu Nov 24, 2011 11:43 pm

F4U-4 Restoration folks:

Does anyone know if the upper/lower surfaces of the wing folding section were all metal surfaces or were some sections covered with fabric/vinyl??

Tks in advance

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:35 am

The early production F4U-4's had fabric on the outer wing panels, much the same as earlier variants. Vought switched to metal-clad outer wing panels later on, but I am not sure at what point this happened. I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Richard

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:49 am

Richard:

Good day!

Tks for the info/data on the F4U-4 wings.

Do you happen to know what the current/flying F4U-4s display on the upper/lower outer portion of their wings??

Tks in advance

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:09 pm

You're welcome. I think most, if not all, of the current flying F4U-4's have metalized wings. I am pretty certain though that the static XF4U-4 at NEAM has fabric covered outer wing panels though. Just out of curiosity, why do you need to know?

Cheers,
Richard

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:28 pm

Quite a few FG-1Ds are also flying with metalised wings nowadays too

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:45 pm

Richard,
You are correct. NEAM's XFU-4 does indeed, have fabric covered outer wing sections.
Jerry

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:17 pm

The F4U-5 started the metal covered wings.

The F2G series had fabric wings. Cook Cleland metalized the wings for race number 94.

http://www.voughtaircraft.com/heritage/ ... f4u-5.html

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:33 am

My Corsair book says the control surfaces (at least the ailerons) went metal sheeted with the F4U-4 and the outer wings metalized with the F4U-5. However, it is correct that most flying F4U's have all metal surfaces, but this is a matter of maintenance practicality as the fabric would require recovering and replacement, something most owners would rather not worry about.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:29 am

The Vintage Wings of Canada Corsair has fabric outer wing panels.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:19 pm

F4U Folks/Capflyer:

Good Day!!

Tks for the info & data. I'll pay for atention in my next airshow to the intricate details of the F4U-Corsair.

Richard, .in answer to your question, we have a colleague in Sao Paulo, Brazil who is a serious modeler and that was one of the his questions concerning the wing panels or fabric on the F4U-4. There is also a F4U-1 birdcage down in a Sao Paulo, Museum!!

BTW, we found some FG-1D wings on what's left of our FAH F4U-4 FAH 617.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:52 pm

CAPFlyer wrote:My Corsair book says the control surfaces (at least the ailerons) went metal sheeted with the F4U-4 and the outer wings metalized with the F4U-5. However, it is correct that most flying F4U's have all metal surfaces, but this is a matter of maintenance practicality as the fabric would require recovering and replacement, something most owners would rather not worry about.

All F4U series had Ailerons that were Wood structure with Plywood sheathing covered with Fabric.
If owners are concerned with originality they will use fabric. Today's modern fabrics can last many years. A FG-1D I worked on in the mid 1990s had fabric applied in the early 1970s on it.
There are some F4U's that still have the fabric covering on the wings. The fabric went from the wing spar to the trailing edge. Access panels, gun bay panels were alum as well as the exterior of the ammo cans on the top surface also was the exterior skin surface. The wing leading edge was alum skin. Earliest models had leading edge fuel tanks.
The rudder and Elevators were fabric covered on all the F4U versions I'm aware of. Maybe AU-1 might be different.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:13 am

I will look it up again, but I'm pretty sure all control surfaces were changed to metal with the F4U-4.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sun Nov 27, 2011 1:17 am

Not a -4, and definitely not airworthy, but the FAA FG-1? has the fabric outer wing sections for sure! http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=284649. My folks got me the book on the restoration a few years back, and I highly recommend it. The detailed pictures and the scope of what they did there are simply stunning! Anyway, not a "thread-heist"...just thought I'd comment! I'd be willing to bet the FHC Corsair will have fabric outer wings, and I'd suspected that the Vintage Wings of Canada did. I don't know about others. I'd imagine that the vast majority of fliers have metalized wings for ease of maintenance and practicality. Is it fairly simple to switch between the 2? Does anyone know?

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:45 am

It's been a long time since I've seen either, but I'm at least 99.9% sure that both Merle Gustafson's & Robbie Jones' -4s had fabric ailerons, at least in the '70s & '80s.


CAPFlyer wrote:I will look it up again, but I'm pretty sure all control surfaces were changed to metal with the F4U-4.

Re: F4U-4 Corsair Wing Enquire

Sun Nov 27, 2011 11:05 am

CAPFlyer wrote:I will look it up again, but I'm pretty sure all control surfaces were changed to metal with the F4U-4.


Negative. Everything I have ever found indicates that Rich is correct in his post.

The War Eagles -4 has metal covered wings, but the ailerons are wood covered with fabric. There are data plates inside the folding portion that show those sections were reworked by the USN in the mid '50s and for some time I thought maybe they were reskinned with aluminum, but all evidence seems to point to metal covered wings and ailerons on -4 (and earlier) being a post military mod. I am not comfortable enough to say it never happened, but I comfortable enough to say that the metal skin was not added until those aircraft left USN and USMC service. In any case all evidence points to all F4Us up to and including the -4 left the factory with fabric portions of the wing and fabric covered wood ailerons. The same would hold true of FG-1s and F3As as well.
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