F4U Corsair folding wings

Apr 20, 2022 11:10 PM

largo33

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154422

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1709

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12

And on the 8th day, God created the F4U Corsair. Also, I’m upvoting every commenter here.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Beautiful machine

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

SR-71, P-51, F4U - my all-time favorites!

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I hope they flap for take-off

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I always love seeing these planes. The folding wings are so fucking cool.

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

A beautiful machine.

4 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

Don't know why, but fuck I love these F4Us something about em makes me feel good

4 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

My grandfather's plane in the Pacific theater during WWII. I have one of his silk maps in case he was shot down over water.

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

'' Be sure that your airfoils are in the down and locked position before takeoff. ''

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Send it to Ukraine

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

God damn right. Fly real low, middle of the night, drop ordinance, pull up!

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Hey, Skipper. Good to see you getting up and around again.

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

My favorite plane

4 years ago | Likes 24 Dislikes 0

Agreed.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

reminds me of one of my fav reaction gifs -

4 years ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 1

... Nick?

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

My absolute favorite airplane of all time. And I love airplanes.

3 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Me trying to wake up

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

I figured in 1940's would have just had some sailor kick the wings down. Didn't know they were motorised.

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Preferable to having a dude running around anywhere near that huge prop. Already have the hydraulics for other systems, so…

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Wonder what type of locking mechanism keeps the wing secure during flight.

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

An extremely Strong one. Not a notable point of failure when overstressed in maneuvers. The wings bend other places first.

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

“Do you see? Being. Becoming. DO . YOU. SEE?!”

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They'll have to flap faster than that to fly like a bird.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

*unfolding

4 years ago | Likes 135 Dislikes 9

3 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

*unzipping

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

silly, the clip is reversed /s

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Given the fixed disposition of most airplane wings, I think "F4U Corsair folding wings" is an acceptable title

4 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 3

You may have missed the joke.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 4

Joke is marginal at best.

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Everytime i see one, i just keep thinking it hasn't fully unfolded yet and they're like "eh, ef it. Lets go flying!"

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Pappy approves

4 years ago | Likes 34 Dislikes 0

Like… from Star Fox?

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Our age is showing up

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I met him when i was 5 at Oshkosh.

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Like....sugar mammas bf from proud family?

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I am the "typical" P-51/A-10 fan, but I sure do appreciate foldable wings

4 years ago | Likes 113 Dislikes 0

P-51s are a thing of beauty. I love the way once the Rolls Royce engine was incorporated, it was even more bad ass.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

What, no P-38?

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The old naval WWII warbirds did amazing ground pounding work in Vietnam and Korea.

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

*Fly Navy.*

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I WAS an A10 fan, until...https://youtu.be/WWfsz5R6irs

4 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 5

Tbh, that dipped wing look is near-pornographic

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

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[deleted]

4 years ago (deleted Oct 21, 2024 11:35 PM) | Likes 0 Dislikes 0

I did enjoy that

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I love the bonus warbird comments/links these posts always seem to lead to

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

If I ever win a large amount of money, that is the first bullshit thing I'm buying ?

4 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Yeah… for me it’s a fuckton of land and then a Sherman. Then imma just tear loose with my fuckin tank

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Two chicks at the same time, my dude.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Be sure to spend a large sum of money learning how to fly it FIRST, that thing will kill you quick.

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Hey....two birds one stone? ?

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I know its unfounded, but I can't help but worry about the wings folding back up midflight due to some kind of structural or user error.

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Interlocks upon interlocks upon interlocks. And they did that shit with 1940s tech, too.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They were engineered in such a way that you actually had to work to get them out of the locked position. Not something that would just 1/2

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Happen in the course of a flight. These birds were the fastest at level flight, and barely slower than the P-47 in a dive. Wings had to 2/3

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

be able to firmly lock in place with no issues. Mechanically speaking, they would move to that position in high Gs

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The bent wing design was in order to keep the landing gear short but still give enough clearance for the large propeller

4 years ago | Likes 385 Dislikes 3

The landing gear had to be short so they could be strong enough for the increased forces of landing on a pitching and rolling carrier deck

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Those props are HUGE.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Only issue is the pilot can’t see shit for most of the takeoff run. (Maybe not ONLY issue, but significant.)

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Was thinking this to myself! +1

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Which is ironic, because the original designs used a smaller engine/prop but weren't powerful enough. Chain of revisions led to this icon!

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

And aerodynamic stability (dihedral)

4 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

This is about the extreme anhedral between the wing root and the main landing gear

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I thought it was dihedral for stability. Interesting.

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

How do you taxi in that? Can you even see the ground?

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Not really. Had to use spotters alongside the plane. Navy eventually gave up on using it from carriers, but the British figured it out.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

And also to look dope as fuck

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

I always wondered why, thank you sir

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That and to accommodate it's 13'4" blade diameter.

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I thought it was so they’d store easier on aircraft carriers …?

4 years ago | Likes 67 Dislikes 2

No that's the folding part. He's talking about wing shape

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

The folding does that. This is about how there's still an angle change over the gear when the wings are deployed.

4 years ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 0

I think he’s referring to the gull wing - bendywingythingy

4 years ago | Likes 56 Dislikes 1

Me too

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Not where it folds, but where it curves next to the fuselage.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Also increases it’s sexy factor by around 100

4 years ago | Likes 185 Dislikes 1

Yup. Seems there's something about naming an aircraft "F4" that gives it those sexy angles. #phantom

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

4 years ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

They don't make em like they used to

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Not nearly as much as wicked seamless nosecone to fuselage transitions with under-engine intake scoops on propeller aircraft...

4 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

I feel like you have a very particular aircraft you're describing.

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Nah, there's quite a few. P38, P40, P51, Hurricane, Spitfire, BF109, ect. Gorgeous planes, nice and sleek with them pointy noses.

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It gives better lift

4 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 7

The bend actually costs lift, but the wing gets that back and maybe more from the wing root joining the fuselage at a right angle.

4 years ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

It also helped with roll stability

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

A straight wing mid fuselage would be more efficient (drag vs. lift) but the landing gear gets long, weak and spindly, or long and Heavy.

4 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Super appreciate you sharing your informative insight.

4 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

And you have to put those guns somewhere…

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 3

the Navy wanted to go with a pair of 20mm autocannons in each wing, but just could not make reliable ones so the .50s were used

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Guns are all outboard of the propeller arc, well past the folding mechanism and wing bend. Inside the arc is mostly heat exchangers, so the

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

fuselage stays tight to the engine, quite different from P-47s and such with turbo intercoolers and radiators hung everywhere.

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

"lets take the most powerful radial engine ever and give it enough turbocharger to choke god" - P47 design team

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I don't get it, how does folding wings help with either of those things

4 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 4

It took me a bit to get it too. The dip allows the landing gear & wings to go below the body of the aircraft instead of just parallel to it.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Not the folding. The design of the whole wing pointing down from the fuselage then up and out to the tips. Mounts the landing gear lower

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

These were navy planes so on the carrier they go.

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Folding wings are just for storage on a carrier.

4 years ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

The initial commenter didn't finish the idea. Shorter landing gear = stronger landing gear for one of the biggest single engine planes in ?

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

ww2 meant to land on a carrier.

4 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The bend (not fold) in the wings allows shorter, stronger landing gear while still leaving room for a huge prop.

4 years ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 1

I still don't understand. Wouldn't the fact that the plane is angled up be what's giving it the clearance? Like on the p51?

4 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Yes, but you can only angle up so much before you're sacrificing too much ground visibility for the pilot and the tail picks up first 1/

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

during take off reducing that upward angle. Having the wings straight out would mean longer landing gear and lower transverse stability 2/

4 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

When landing/taking off the tail will lift and the frame will be parallel with the ground. It's at these times the prop needs clearance

4 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

I see it now, the dip allows the wings/gear to go below the body of the aircraft.

4 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0