Towards the
end of World War II the US was far ahead of all enemies and
allies in the development of advanced aircraft designs. Prior to the end
of hostilities a contract was awarded jointly to Chance Vought Aircraft
and North American Aviation to develop a dual service aircraft that
would utilize the best features of the US's two premier
fighters of the day...the Navy's F-4U Corsair and the USAAF's
P-51 Mustang. The result of this cooperative effort was the outstanding
F-4U-10 CORSTANG.
The F-4U-10
used the fuselage of the Mustang with the wings of the Corsair. The
Corsair wing, undercarriage and arrestor hook were utilized so that
the CORSTANG could be used for carrier operations as well as land based.
The Mustang fuselage offered the pilot much better visibility overall.
Click on
images below to see larger images
One marked departure from
both aircraft designs was the use of a turbo-prop powerplant. The
CORSTANG marked the first use of such a powerplant in a US warplane.
The F-4U-10 proved to have
remarkable performance characteristics. Fortunately for Germany and
Japan the war ended before the F-4U-10 could be deployed. The aircraft
pictured here served with an unidentified post war Marine reserve unit.
It should be noted that this particular aircraft is still carrying its
World War II tri-color paint scheme.
Lee
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