Ref.: TAMI-61070
Vought F4U-1A Corsair
In February 1938 the US Navy opened design competition for a new single-seat shipboard fighter. Chance-Vought responded with a design based around the new Pratt & Whitney XR-2800 18-cylinder radial. The plane, dubbed the XF4U-1 Corsair, featured a distinctive "inverted gull" wing shape, necessitated by the diameter of the Hamilton Standard propeller and the need to keep the landing gear sturdy enough to withstand carrier landings. On October 1, 1940, the prototype Corsair ran a speed course between Stratford and Hartford, Connecticut and attained a top speed of 404 mph, making the Corsair the first plane to exceed 400 mph in level flight. Naturally the Navy was quite impressed and ordered a production version for further testing.