F4U-5 ferry range

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I am writing a story involving the F4U-5 Corsair. The various websites
list the combat range but none shows a ferry range with full fuel and
drop tanks. Does anyone know the max ferry range with attached gas
tanks?

Thanks,

Sac Writer

[Larry Cauble]

BuAer published "Standard Aircraft Charcteristics" for each aircraft. The aviation branch of the Naval Historical Center has reproduced these for a number of Navy aircraft at their web site. The quality is sometimes so-so and not all aircraft are included, but they do have the F4U-4 specs, including performance summary and range graph:

www.history.navy.mil/branches/hist-ac/f4u-4.pdf

And of course the -4 is not the -5, but will be close. With 234 gal of internal fuel and two 150-gal external tanks, 1300 NM at 180 knots. The -5 had the same fuel numbers, but not the same engine.

I am writing a story involving the F4U-5 Corsair. The various websites
list the combat range but none shows a ferry range with full fuel and
drop tanks. Does anyone know the max ferry range with attached gas
tanks? Sac Writer

[Peter Stickney]

wrote:

> I am writing a story involving the F4U-5 Corsair. The various
> websites list the combat range but none shows a ferry range with
> full fuel and drop tanks. Does anyone know the max ferry range with
> attached gas tanks?

Well, here's what I and my F4U-5 Pilot's Handbook have been able to
come up with.

The maximum fuel load's going to be 234 U.S. gallons in the main
(Fuselage) tank, and 2 150 U.S. gallon drop tanks. (While there are
3 pylons on an F4U-5 that could carry fuel, the center and left pylon
use the same pressure and vent plumbing - so you've got a choice of 1
or 2 tanks.)
A typical allowance for warmup and takeoff would be 70-80 gallons.
So after takeoff, you'd have 'bout 455 gallons in the tanks.
With a 10% reserve, about 56 gallons, that leave 400 gal. for
straight-line flying.
The best fuel economy with an F4U-5, because of the variable speed
superchargers, is right down on the deck - but there's not much
difference between 0 and 5,000'.
400 gallons at best cruise power (33" Manifold Pressure/ 1500 RPM/
Mixture Normal) at Sea Level gives 175 kts TAS/IAS. That'll give you
984 Nautical Miles of distance. Of course, the wind's going to
affect you. A 10 kt headwind component knocks off about 60 nm, A 10
kt tailwind component would add the same.

That 55 gallon reserve doesn't gain you all that much - it'll chew
through that in to minutes at Normal Power (53"/2600 RPM)

A couple of other F4U-5 quirks - As with any other large recip with a
constant speed propeller, the propeller control controls the RPM, and
the Throttle controls the Manifold pressure. But - the throttle runs
things through a little mechanical computer that figures out how much
of that manifold pressure is going to come from the engine's
mainstage supercharger, or the auxiliary supercharger. This means
that you don't necessarily know the amount of power that the engine's
actually developing for a particular manifold pressure. For that
reason, formation takeoffs in F4U-5s was not recommended - two
airplanes could behave very differently on the ground.
There's also no manual leaning of the mixture - the mixture control
has 3 settings - Rich, (For takeoff and power above Normal Power) Run
(For normal operation), and Idle Cutoff. (Off)

Hope this Helps.
--
Pete Stickney
Java Man knew nothing about coffee.