F4U inverted gull wings

In article ,
Peter Stickney wrote:
In article ,
(DJFawcett26) writes:
The
decision made with the Corsair was to reduce the Interference Drag by
acheiving, as much as possible, a wing-fuselage joint perpendicular to
the fuselage, (The inverted gull wing) with a minimum of filleting,
thus reducing Parasite Drag.

Actually, the major driver for the inverted gull was finding a way to make
clearance for the HUGE prop so runways and carrier decks didn't get chopped up.

Sorry, but the evidence points in the other direction. There was
nothing particularly outstanfing wrt teh Corsair's propeller diamter -
13'1" for the 3-blade prop, and 13'2" for teh 4-blade - the F6F
Hellcat - no inverted gull wing - low mid-wing, in fact, had no
problems operating in the same environment. - in fact, around the
boat, it was a much better airplane than the Corsair.

It's a story which has been around a long time, though - pretty much
as long as the Corsair itself. Norman Hanson was given that as the
reason for the "bent-wing" when he visited Voights in 1943 prior
to picking up the RN's first back of Corsair Is*, so someone at the
factory obviously thought that was the reason. It's possible that the
bent wing was needed to get the big prop. /and/ some other bit of
configuration that Voights thought desirable (which Grumman didn't
adopt for the Gannet/Hellcat or Hawker for the Tiffie).

* source is originally direct - Hans was a family friend - but is
included in his (regrettably out of press) book, "Carrier Pilot".

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)