Corsair folding wings

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:58 am

Does anyone know if the ground based Marine units still had a need to fold their wings out on the islands. I heard one vet once say they would if a big storm was coming, but that was many years ago. Anyone have any pics? Thanks

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7802

Marauderman26 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:05 am **Posts:** 167

mustangdriver wrote:

Does anyone know if the ground based Marine units still had a need to fold their wings out on the islands. I heard one vet once say they would if a big storm was coming, but that was many years ago. Anyone have any pics? Thanks

There would have been no need for Marine units to fold the wings while ashore. Goodyear built Corsairs even lacked the mechanisum to do so. (no need to haul around the weight if you are not going to use) I would imagine that those Corsairs in the Marine units wing fold mechanisums would have become unserviceable after time with no need to service or waste time doing so.
This of course would change later in the war when Marine units where ordered onto the carriers to counter the Special attack strikes.

There are many referances to the fact (random example below) I have the S/N's of the FG's that lacked the fold mechanism buried somewhere, will post when I find.

"Goodyear Aircraft Production

Goodyear’s version was designated FG-1. In 1943, Goodyear delivered 377 FG-1’s. In 1944, Goodyear boosted the production rate six-fold to 2,108 aircraft. Another 1,521 FG-1’s were accepted in the 8 months of hostilities during 1945 for a wartime total of 4,006 aircraft. This amounted to over one-third of all Corsairs produced during World War II. Many of these FG-1’s were built with non-folding wings during the period before Corsairs were put aboard carriers, and these aircraft went to land-based Marine squadrons."

bombadier29 · **Joined:** Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:17 pm **Posts:** 272

Goodyear Corsairs did indeed have the wing folding mechanism. The Marines may have folded them to prevent damage to the fabric outer wing panels.

cooper9411 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:53 pm

All Corsairs had the wing fold mechanism. It made more space aboard ships to carry more aircraft. Now when the aircraft launched from the ships and landed on the islands, the mechanic could have removed it (highly doubt it). :drinkers:

ErrolC · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:36 am

A couple of photos on Wings Over NZ of RNZAF Corsairs in the islands with their wings folded:

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... ost=136382

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?ac ... ost=148655

Also, the Masterton-based Old Stick and Rudder Company's ex-RNZAF FG-1D sometime folds its wings at airshows.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:57 am

Errol, the wings on the FG-1D here came from a different model Fleet Air Arm Corsair, apparently. Hence the lack of wingtips and the step in the flap.

The RNZAF Corsairs, which never operated from carriers - only land bases, did indeed fold the wings sometimes but I believe a stop was put to this when there was an accident where a wing folded on take off, and the engineering officers decided to lock all wings in unfolded position. I have heard this a few times so I assume it is correct. Photos of folded wings in RNZAF service are definately not commonly found.

51fixer · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:05 am

cooper9411 wrote:

All Corsairs had the wing fold mechanism. It made more space aboard ships to carry more aircraft. Now when the aircraft launched from the ships and landed on the islands, the mechanic could have removed it (highly doubt it). :drinkers:

IIRC the R-4360 powered F2G-1 did not have Wing Fold hydraulics installed. They could be manually folded. The -1 was to be built for land based Marine units. I believe the reasoning was they could build them a bit faster.
The F2G-2 was being built for the Navy and had all the hydraulics and parts for the wing fold installed.
I discovered this looking through the Maint manual for the F2G many years ago.
I don't believe any other Corsair built had the wing fold system deleted.

whistlingdeath77 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:17 pm

I believe Marine Corsairs would fold their wings if needed to. Possibly to concele the plane under some palm trees. Majority of the time they were down simply because of constant missions and access to more room than a carrier. I think i have some photos somewhere

m charters · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:49 pm

Someone correct me if I am wrong but the British Corsairs wings you referred to with the shorter wings due to cut down tips were because of a shorter height below deck on the British carriers, and I don't recall any Corsairs not having folding wings. Brewster Corsairs did have wing problems, but that was due to fitting issues.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:06 pm

Yes the FAA Corsairs were shortened by removing the tips because the smaller carriers in the Royal Navy had the lower deck ceilings than the standard US height. Most of the aircraft they used were unaffectedas their wings folded backwards, but the Corsair didn't. The Seafire is smaller so it fitted ok.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:51 pm

Thanks so much everyone!!

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:35 pm

Dave Homewood wrote:

Yes the FAA Corsairs were shortened by removing the tips because the smaller carriers in the Royal Navy had the lower deck ceilings than the standard US height. Most of the aircraft they used were unaffectedas their wings folded backwards, but the Corsair didn't. The Seafire is smaller so it fitted ok.

Part of the reason the Royal Navy carriers had lower ceilings in the hangar deck was due to the heavily armoured flight deck, (which meant that none of these carriers were sunk or due to dive bombing, or kamikaze attacks, unlike US Carriers, which suffered greatly in those cases). They couldn't carry nearly as many aircraft though, which was a significant problem at times. Also, the Spitfire had folding wing tips as well as the main wing fold, so they could fit more easily in the carrier.

I wish someone would put to bed the notion that FG Corsairs had the wing fold system deleted at the factory and no hooks... it simply isn't true. It may have been a field mod in some squadrons, but they certainly left the factory with the gear in place.

Cheers,
Richard

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:30 am

Yes I have talked with several Kiwis and Brits who were aboard fleet carriers which were hit by Kamikazes. Only one case of the stories I've heard did the ship list badly, etc but they soon regained control. In the other cases they said that the crews simply swept the Japanese mess off the deck, filled the slight dent with concrete to level it out again, and within an hour they were operating again. A huge advantage having the steel decks. I don't know why the US Navy went that way in WWII.

51fixer · **Posted:** Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:31 am

F2G-1 PILOT MANUAL PAGE-

Paragraph on lower L/H column references lack of hyd wing fold on F2G-1.
Only other difference I remember is -1 had a 14' dia prop and -2 Carrier version specifies 13' 7" dia prop.

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