foxfoto

Yep, works for me!

NCIS

Tim,

I thought the Top Flite kit was the F4U-1. Am I right or wrong? If it's the F4U-1 where do the stacks come out the bottom? What positions? Are they 5 and 7 O'Clock? If they are I will just change the place I have them exit the fuselage. That is what's nice about Jtec's method of flex tubing. It's versatile! I can put them anywhere I want them. Also what are the difference between all these different Corsair's? All I have been able to see are exhaust positions and how high the hump in the rear canopy is. Tell me the other real differences that will really show up and is it something that will only be judged for competition or seen by fellow modelers? I don't plan on entering any scale competition. I just want it to look as real as possible. What model of Corsair is this one I want to duplicate as close as possible.

Thanks,

Gibbs

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

f4u1 had bottom stacks I am looking at tge pilots manual

NCIS

Hey Everybody,

In all the pictures I've seen so far and thats been about 40 of them, I don't see anything but a clear rear canopy on the real Corsairs. There are no supports and the half circle is not there either. There are the 2 supports in the front windshield but thats it. What Corsair had the canopy like the one that came with our kits? Did Top Flite make a mistake? Almost all the other model companies making the Giant Corsair have the same supports as in our kits. Did they make the same mistake or am I just not finding the right model Corsair that had the supports in the rear canopy? What gives?

Gibbs

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

While I'm certainly no expert, no Corsair I've ever seen either in real life or pictures has had anything but a bubble canopy. That's what turned me off of the Iron Bay canopy...

cimara

is this what you are talking about with the canopy the last is Boingtons corsair it has those same strips like iron bays canopy

rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

Timothy

You are right, they are at 5 and 7 o'clock stayed that way from what I can find till they went to the 2450 hp engine, from there they all had 4 stacks 3,5,7, and 9 oclock.


look at page 5 in 16 page file that I posted about 20 back


Cheers Bob T

aghost

My Feedback: (13)

NCIS - A book I have says the F4U-1 had the "birdcage" looking canopy. The F4U-1A and subsequent versions had the frameless, clear-view-type canopy. About 700 F4U-1 were built. Apparently the Marine Corp squadron VMF-124 initially had the F4U-1 at Guadacanal.

Brian

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

my father flew p-47s and knew a lot about corsairs he even knew pappy! He told me the framed bubble was used as a carrier mod to reinforce the bubble to the circle landing approach they had to make. Remember we gave them to britain cause we couldnt fly them off carriers and GB perfected the tight circle approach. Canopys could also be quickly interchanged, so no matter you wouldnt be wrong

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

Well there's the photographic evidence, as well as anecdotal, that the strips were in fact used as well as the greenhouse style canopy.

But while there are those who like those types of canopies on the early Mustangs, razorback p-47's and the Corsairs, I'm a clean bubble canopy guy...

Thanks for the info guys!

edit info:

One other thing, and I can't find my copy of the book right now besides it having been a long time since I read it. IIRC "Pappy's" first book published in 1958 on the Black Sheep, says that what got the Corsairs "bounced" from carrier duty was indeed the bounce. While the long nose was a challenge and the Brits did come up with the circling approach, it was the original design of the oleo struts which caused the problem as the airplanes bounced really bad when they hit the deck.

That was later corrected but by that time the Hellcat's had gone into service and the Navy didn't want anything to do with Corsairs until they came up with the radar unit mounted in a pod under the wing, and thus they came back into Naval service during WWII as night fighters.

Or at least that's what I remember of the information...

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

good info zeeb and accurate

VoughtF4U

My Feedback: (1)

The F-4U-1 model Corsair had the "birdcage" canopy. There were a few version of this, but the differences were very minor.

The F-4U-1A and FG-1A Corsairs had the "bubble" canopy, but with the two straps that ran across the top of the sliding portion. The technology was not available yet to make a single piece sliding bubble canopy with sufficient strength. So they made it in three pieces.

Sometime during the early stages of the F-4U-1D and FG-1D Corsair production run they went to the "bubble" canopy without the two straps on the sliding portion.

The canopy pretty much stayed the same after that up until the F-4U-5. That canopy had a flat panel for the front windshield.

The FG-2 Super Corsair had the true "bubble" (blown) canopy similar to a P-51D

BIOHAZARD

That was later corrected but by that time the Hellcat's had gone into service and the Navy didn't want anything to do with Corsairs until they came up with the radar unit mounted in a pod under the wing, and thus they came back into Naval service during WWII as night fighters.

Not to pick nits, but want to add some corrections.

The Navy did not want the Corsair due to the long nose and the pilots inability to see the deck on approach. It wasn't until the British refined the process of carrier landing which involves the circling method coming from the aft-port side and turning into the the deck. this allowed the pilot to see the deck on approach. The bouncing was never really controlled and remained a problem throughout the Corsairs life aboard carriers. The curved approach helped to reduce the instances of a hard bounce landing.

Also, the Corsair was not brought back into Carrier Aviation due to the wing mounted radar. The photo that I hopefully have attached here will show you a group of Corsairs that are on the deck without the wing mounted radar.

Hope this clears some things up.

NCIS

Boy, they sure crammed a bunch of planes on that Carrier in the second picture!

Gibbs

NCIS

Hey Flyboy's,

This is the first picture of a canopy that has the same shape as the one in our kit. Although it doesn't have the braces it does have whatever that black or blue half circle on it. What is that called and what was it for? In your opinion do you think the shape is pretty close or the same?

Gibbs

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

Well if you want to nit pick, I beg to seriously disagree... [8D]

I said they were brought back during WWII because of the night fighter capability and that is true. The pictures you've posted appear to be later model Corsairs and they were used by the Navy in other roles later on, specifically in Korea where they performed admirably as ground support aircraft. Your pictures appear to be Korean era rather than WWII.

Here's a pic and the website it came from with some info on the night fighters;

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/f4u2res1.htm

RCPILOT78

Here are some pics of the completed fuse...all I need to do is add the rest of the decals and the push rods on the engine...the completed fuse weighs in at 14 lbs...the wing still has to be covered and painted I figure the wing will weigh out at approx. 9lb...the plane should come in at approx 24 to 25 lbs....when finished...

foxfoto

That looks awesome...

Zeeb

My Feedback: (41)

That looks GREAT!

Your ambition never ceases to amaze me, I'm still collecting parts in between IMAC acquisitions and you've already got your fuselage done with some really nice work.

cliff600

My Feedback: (3)

Good looking plane. I am getting my prop for christmas soo I should be ready to fly then.

jchorak

My Feedback: (9)

NCIS

The corsair in the photo is the F4u-1D or Fg-1D which initially had the canopy with the cross braces, but soon received the canopy you see in the photo as production progressed. It was the 1D that found it's way to carriers in great numbers in the latter part of WWII.

jc

NCIS

RCPILOT78,

I see you didn't make yours a sliding canopy. Do you think it is better to leave it in one piece? I ordered a sliding canopy from Iron Bay a month ago and still don't have it. I don't know whats up with them but I'm not holding my breath. I will probably end up using the canopy that came with the kit. I am not sure if I want to make it a sliding one or not. I would probably screw it up if I tried. Builders that did make their's sliding said it was easy. I need detailed instructions and photos if I'm going to try to make mine sliding. I would like it if someone would PM me and let me know if they can provide me with what I need so I can make one. I guess if I don't make mine a slider, I'll make the channel for it to slide in anyway for scale looks. You might consider that. Thats the only way I could tell yours didn't slide. That is a very nice looking plane and I would be proud of it if it were mine. I hope mine turn's out as nice. Any tips?

Gibbs

RCPILOT78

I chose not to go with the sliding canopy I felt that it might add too much weight behind the CG..I put a lot of detail in the cockpit and that did add extra weight back there..my advice is to build light...the fruits of my labor netted me an airplane well within the flying weight and still has a lot of detail...I know that there is propably not a whole lot of extra weight with a sliding canopy but I did not want to chance it..my detailed pilot added a lot of weight back there...

NCIS

RCPILOT78,

Did you cut the canopy at the line or did you just paint a line to make it look like it is two separate parts? From the pictures it looks like the rear canopy is separate from the windshield. Whatever you did it looks right. Let me know what you did.

Thanks,

Gibbs

rt3232

My Feedback: (6)

RCpilot

That fuss looks great, but now I have to ask what does the wing look like Most likely the same good workman ship

Cheers Bob T