ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:

In article ,
hobo wrote:
In article ,
(ANDREW ROBERT BREEN) wrote:

It's a story which has been around a long time, though

I read something about the Corsair having the first fully retracted and
enclosed landing gear in order to reduce drag. The same article said the

Maybe for Voight.. but plenty of aeroplanes had fully retracting 'carts
long long before. I'd guess the first would probabllt have been the
I-16, kicking on fofr a good 10 years before, but even such latecomers
as Hawker's Hurricane and Willi Messerschmidt's Bf109 had fully-retracting
undercarriages in 1934-ish.

Even if you restrict it to fully retracting AND enclosed, the Spit prototype
had both. They removed the outboard cover doors when it was found that the
extra drag was minimal, and the Spits didn't get fully-enclosed wheels back
until the Mk. 21 or even later Marks (which were about 100 mph faster than the
Mk.I), IIRR.

Given that Voight were a clearly competant outfit - the Corsair being one
of the best aerial weapons* of WW2 - I doubt if they'd missed this one.

snip

Not only were they technically competent, they also knew the name was spelled
"Vought" ;-)

Guy