Well since none of you pathetic whining drones has put up one shred of documantion proving that either the Guns or the FM of the F4U-1C is over modeled I figured I would give you something else to whine about.
1. This months cover of "Fly Past " magazine shows on the cover a perfectly restored Fg-1D(the Goodyear built version of the F4U-1D) on the cover. But notice that the armament is not 6 50Cals. It is 4 20mils albeit not the Hispano variety cannon. I have seen a number of these birds in the same configuration which leads me to belive that there were more than just the 200 F4U-1C's built by Vought. Although finding production numbers has been impossible. I have personally seen many of this example not just this one restoration.
2. Fo all those concerned about the ability of the F4U to maneuver so well I will give you the conclusion of a flight test done in 1989 by the "Socioty of Expermental Test pilots" in a Syposium given to the Aerospace foudation. They Tested a P-51D, P-47D-40,
FG-1D and a F6F-5 using military power at 10,000FT and this was the result of there testing.
Conclusions
Quote
"The objective of the program as stated , albeit rather tounge in cheek,
was to decide which of these four aircraft was the best US fighter in
WW2. The answer is "It depends". For general all around comfort, field
of view and ease of operation, the Mustang was a hands down winner. It
also scored high in performance, and was well suited to long range
escort missions and would do well intercepting and defending against
Non-maneuvering targets. However it's extraordinarily high maneuvering
stick forces, totally inadiquate stall warning and vicious departure
characterictics make it quite unsuited to the ACM envirement. It is a
tribute to the adaptabilty of the pilots who flew them that Mustangs
scored so many kills against the opposition.
In a turning fight , the FG-1D emerged with a slight advantage over it's
rivals. Light and comfortable stick forces, good performance, adequate
stall warning and docile behavior at the stall made it the "Weapon of
choice" amoung those tested.
The Hellcat while possesing almost a 1G advantage over the other A/C at
any given speed, was handicapped by heavy stick forces which interfered
with accurate lateral tracking corrections. Very heavy rudder forces
which made coordination difficult, and an extreme reluctance to turn
right at low speed at high power. Despite these short comings, it is
worth remebering that the Hellcat holds the Air to Air kill ratio record
at 19 to 1.
In the air to air envirement , the P-47 did all that was asked of it,
handling nicely but unspectacularly however. It was principly
handicapped by its severly restricted field of view. In the Air to
ground role however , the light stick forces, almost complete absense of
adverse yaw , and crisp, deadbeat tracking responses overcame that
drawback and nade it particularly suitable for the mission. The other
major drawback of the P-47 was it's poorly designed and extremely
uncomfortable cockpit which would undoubtably degraded pilot comfort and
performance on a long mission.
End Quote.
Flame Away
F4UDOA
