4.11 F4U Performance

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by dpeters95

OK, well how about this making sense... The following is a list of British Pacific Fleet ESCORT CARRIERS that all contained F4u-1a squadrons:

HMS Slinger
HMS Arbiter
HMS Speaker
HMS Fencer
HMS Chaser
HMS Reaper
HMS Striker
HMS Ruler

They were all the same "class" of ship and their overall length was 492 feet 3 inches (150.04 m), pretty much the identical length (150 m) as the US Escort Carriers. I used the British carriers because the US carrier list was so long that it would have taken forever to trace down all the on board squadrons and their airplane compliment.

So that should make sense. I don't have all the spec sheets, etc., and I don't know what loads they carried, but those F4u-1A's could at a minimum fly off the Escort Carriers deck, ours currently can not...

Interesting to find out about those ships for sure...any idea what the requirements were for a successful launch? Use of a catapult? Minimum wind over the deck?

As far as I know the US Navy never cleared the Corsair or the Helldiver for Escort Carrier use. Even the biggest (Sangamon class) I don't think was cleared to operate with either of those types.

I am surprised that the RN would do it... but they were the ones to pioneer Corsair use on carrier decks and developed the doctrine around usage so maybe they found a way.

[dpeters95]

Originally Posted by IceFire

Interesting to find out about those ships for sure...any idea what the requirements were for a successful launch? Use of a catapult? Minimum wind over the deck?

As far as I know the US Navy never cleared the Corsair or the Helldiver for Escort Carrier use. Even the biggest (Sangamon class) I don't think was cleared to operate with either of those types.

I am surprised that the RN would do it... but they were the ones to pioneer Corsair use on carrier decks and developed the doctrine around usage so maybe they found a way.

Actually, I was surprised also. I didn't think F4U's were used on any escort carriers except for transport. I have seen pictures of F4U's on an escort carrier but they were being moved to a land based airfield.

Yes, you're correct. The RN actually figured out by performing a sort of semi-circle (as opposed to a longer straight in approach) they could avoid the "Left Wing Stall" that the US pilots complained about when trying to land. Actually, I think there were more F4U's on RN carriers than on US carriers. The vast majority were used from land based airfields by the US Marine Corps.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by dpeters95

Actually, I was surprised also. I didn't think F4U's were used on any escort carriers except for transport. I have seen pictures of F4U's on an escort carrier but they were being moved to a land based airfield.

Yes, you're correct. The RN actually figured out by performing a sort of semi-circle (as opposed to a longer straight in approach) they could avoid the "Left Wing Stall" that the US pilots complained about when trying to land. Actually, I think there were more F4U's on RN carriers than on US carriers. The vast majority were used from land based airfields by the US Marine Corps.

Very interesting for sure!

I think it'd be an interesting direction to do a bit more work on the British Pacific Fleet operations in IL-2. A map of the Oil Refinery at Palembang, map of the area around Tokyo, a Firefly, a Ki-44, and Ki-48 and we could do most of the scenario. Oh and of course the RN escort carriers... but not all of them I guess because many of these would be US built and therefore owned by the infamous N-G... hopes dashed. Still we could do a lot with the main fleet carriers and the Corsairs we already have the FAA versions of the Corsairs.