saramos

I tried to get some measurements at Chino today, but it looks like I chose the wrong day. The people I needed to speak with to get permission are out on Sundays. I may take a day off later in the week. I figured out a way of measuring the width of the fuse at the various stations using a plumb bob, but haven't found a good way of measuring the stations top to bottom. Unlike the engine cowl, the fuse stations are not circular and cannot be measured the same way I did the cowl. I've only found one drawing of one station that actually has dimensions on it. The drawing is of Station 91 3/4. It shows, not only the bulkhead, but the contour of the fuse all the way around. This is the bulkhead that meets up with the main spar.

Scott

lester_palifka

How about making a large caliper out of ply wood ... mark it in feet and inches that way you can get a top to bottom measurement of the bulkhead sations... i will try and sketch something up for you in the way of a caliper....lester

saramos

I thought about that, but I'm not comfortable with asking the Museum about bringing in large pieces of wood to make measurements.
Also, Drew has kindly offered to make meausrements of the exposed stations on the Corsair he is restoring.

Scott

corsairfas217

LoL Bringing in a big stick... interesting idea. I'm not sure I would be happy about that. Ill get you all the measurements I can possibly get. If anyone has a request just pop me an email. I'm usually at the shop all day on Thursdays and will gladly document any thing you guys need. Please just be specific about the points you want measured.

How about the Chance Vought Blueprints? has any one got the set from DC? We have not had the funds to do so. (No $$$ - we are publicly funded and the public is broke) If so I am looking for a few pages to dial in some of our efforts.

rwright142

Drew,

Let me know what you are looking for. I may have a source...

grh_70

How about using a "virtual caliper" such as a surveying instrument like a Total Station?
The TS is in essence a laser equipped optical theodolite with onboard computer.

I have a Total Station and can make it available. It would be necessary to
have a clear line if site to the sections to be measured and the use of a ladder
to place a laser reflector at the high points on the fuse.

GeneH

saramos

I sent an inquiry to NASM but that part of their collection may be in the process of being moved. I received a generic reply saying that a researcher will be contacting me at some future date. I plan on taking anther trip to Chino tomorrow as I did not make it down last weekend.

Scott

rwright142

Lex came through for us with cowl blueprints. The length of the cowl is 43 9/16" as Scott (and Danny in post 1871) has already noted (see attached). I have others if anyone is interested. The 3 pictures are of one page of blueprints.

Remklep

Hi Richard,

If you look at post 1871, you'll notice I also refered to Vought factory drawing VS~10645.
By all chances Lex bought the same DVD with orihinal blueprints that I did a while back :-)
There are a lot of drawings on the DVD, about 350, but unfortunatley most have no measurements, but 10645 has :-)

Danny

rwright142

Hi Danny,

What do you mean?I have you as a source in my post above.
Sorry, I didn't realize you had also posted that. I try to give credit when due, so please accept my apologies.

Lex doesn't have the DVDhe actually has the microfilm and a microfilm reader, and the book "Corsair F4U-1, FG-1, F3A-1 Erection and Maintenance Instructions" which is what he used. The tried scanning the blueprints in but the first 2 scanners he tried were defective!He finally found one that worked. Gotta love his and Drew's dilifence and willingness to help us. When Igot the pictures I had to flip them because they were upside down.

Anyway, the point is that we have measurements thanks to several sources. One thing that I did notice in your post 1871 was you noted the cowl length as 46 9/16 but it is 43 9/16 per the Vought blueprints. Perhaps that was just a typo.

saramos

I've located another drawing that gives a critical measurment for properly scaling fuse drawings such as VS-10250. The drawing is VS-11204 of the windscreen. It gives a reference measurement of 45" from the top of the canopy to the thrustline. The thrustline is shown on most all the drawings of the fuselage. It runs from the center of the prop shaft and exits the rear of the plane 11 5/8" below the center of the tail light. From this, the height of the various stations can be determined once a fuselage drawing with the stations marked is properly scaled.

Scott

Remklep

Cool, great find Scott.
I'll look through my drawings too, maybe we can find more.
Would be good if we could make a list.

Danny

saramos

Is anyone planning on going to PoF for the Corsair event this Saturday? I'll be going down and will try again to make some measurements.

Scott

Remklep

Hey Scott,

Unfortunately, I'm not in LA on saturday, but I will be at the PoF on November 12th.
You can never have enough pictures of the Corsair and I wanna take some of the P-51A.

Danny

grh_70

I am planning to attend.

Gene

Chad Veich

My Feedback: (60)

And then there were two. Bird-cage Corsairs that is. Technically this would be the only true bird-cage Corsair as the other survivor is a later model retrofitted with the early canopy. Interesting article with some very cool pictures.

http://eaa.org/news/2010/2010-11-08_corsair.asp

rwright142

Very cool!

rwright142

I have some exciting news. I am new to the area I live in and when I was at my polling place to vote (it's a church) I noticed a picture on one of their walls of a marine standing in front of a Corsair. The picture has a plaque that had his name and I found out that he was a member of the church. I located an email for a contact at the church and sent them an email asking if they had more information on the pilot because I would like to contact him or his family if he is no longer alive.

So that they didn't think I was a stalker or some creepy weirdo, I explained that I am an administrator of a website that is dedicated to the Corsair and honors the men who flew them as well as the men and women who designed, built, and maintained them and that if they had any more information please let me know or feel free to have whoever contact me.

I sent them the information for the Corsair Information Forum http://f4ucorsair.freeforums.org and my telephone number.

Well, tonight I got a call from Fred Wood, the man in the picture! He said he flew Corsairs in WWII while in Okinawa at the end of the war. We are going to meet in a couple of weeks and I asked if he would mind me interviewing him and he said no problem. He sounded very sharp and even remembered about the IFF settings he would have to set on the Corsair or risk being shot down. He's 87 and I'm very excited to be able to meet another pilot who actually flew Corsairs in WWII. The first one I met is a long way away, but Fred lives less than10 miles from me.

If you have any questions you would like for me to ask him PM them to me so we don't detract from this build thread (again lol, sorry)

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Guys, wonderful work on this project. I'm looking for any good leads on sources of information for RAF corsair schemes. Be it dwgs or decal sets, I'm looking to refinish a 74" span US version. Figuring that the collective group subscribing to this thread offers our best collection of Corsair wisdom, thought it wouldn't hurt to post. [8D]
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

saramos

This book has a lot of paint schemes including about a half dozen british.

CORSAIR: 30 Years of Filibustering 1940-1970 By: Bruno Pautigny
ISBN# 2913903282 Hardcover / Color and Black & White Photos, Color Drawings

Scott

I-fly-any-and-all

My Feedback: (1)

Where doy ou guys get those technical drawings?

rwright142

I have found most of mine online at some Russian site. I'll try to find it and let you know.

saramos

I purchased a set from http://www.sicuropublishing.com/servlet/StoreFront. It contained about 200 or so drawings (they say 295,but some seem to be duplicates). It is not very complete, and only a hand full of drawings in the set have any dimensions.
Also, the drawings have various distortions. In some, the vertical and horizontal scales do not match, and many have linear distortions because the drawings which were transfered to microfilm were not layed perfectly flat or the paper was distorted because of age.

There is only a limited number of true factory drawings available online. All factory drawings should have a title block in the lower right hand corner, and all should have a drawing number in the format of VS-XXXXX.
The ultimate source for drawings I am aware of, are the two sets of drawings on microfilm that the National Air and Space Muesum has. One is a set of 18 rolls, the other is a set of 33. Reproduction cost for the 33 roll set is almost 2 grand.
The other problems with getting the microfilm is that the NASM collection of all aircraft drawings will not be available until spring because the Musem is moving, and having equipment to view and print microfilm.

Converting the drawings into a usable form takes a lot of work. I have been working on creating the most accurate set of drawings of the fuselage that I can. I would not be able to without the ability to get at least some basic measurements of the fuselage of an actual F4U-1A.

Another source of a very limited number of drawings is the Structural Repair Manual, but the drawings are way different scales vertical vs. horizontal, and from one drawing to the next.

I've yet to find a set of third party drawings that appear to be as acurate as I want.

Scott

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

Thanks Scott. I ordered a used copy of Amazon today. I'll add this to my growing pile of literature.

impulse09

My Feedback: (3)

If you guys offset the vertical fin by 2 degrees to port, did you also use 0 degrees of right thrust?

TIA

-DS