ORIGINAL: speedster 1919
I like 3 blades and I love the ground clearence. Funny how us 3 bladers can always find an equal performing prop if they are so inefficent. WW2 was all about speed . Way too bad they didn't know 2 blade was so efficent. They were idiots to put 3 and 4 blades on their planes. LOL
Not idiots, just practical. They already knew that 2 blades were more efficient but the realities of landing gear lengths meant that multiblade prop designs were a neccesary evil. This tradeoff finally culminated with the 6 and 8 blade counter rotating props.
The writeups I've read about the Corsair design all stated that the inverted gull wing was chosen to allow a shorter and tougher landing gear to better withstand the controlled crashes that naval aviation calls landings while still allowing the use of that big 4 blade prop to harness the power of the corncob.
Like most things it's all about compromise.....
So while 3 bladers are not ideal in the power and thrust department they may have other features that work well with one model or the other.