F4U Takeoff problem

[horseback]

Originally Posted by IceFire

If I'm not mistaken, those were all much larger than the one class of CVE that we have from Pacific Fighters.

The Wildcat may have been a bit of a handful but it was still the aircraft of choice for these tiny pocket carriers. At the battle of Leyte Gulf it was a few Wildcats and Avengers from the CVE's of Taffy 3 that held back a much larger force. There was no Hellcat or Corsair employed from these carriers.

Well, let's start with a comparison to the TBF, which usually operated off those CVEs with the Wildcat; powered by an R-2600 generating about 1,900 horses vs the 2,000+ hp R-2800 which powered the Corsair and Hellcat. The Avenger's empty weight is 2,000 lbs heavier than the Corsair's, and it was usually heavily loaded with fuel and bombs, rockets or torpedoes on takeoff. A fully internally laden Avenger carried about 16,500 lbs with a wing area of 490 square ft; a loaded clean Corsair weighed in at 10,500 lbs with a wing area of 314 square ft, which works out to less than one pound (less than .5 kg) difference in weight per square foot of wing area with an extra 5-10% of takeoff power

I think that we should also remember that CVEs were the primary means of supplying replacement aircraft to deployed carrier task groups in the last 18 months or so of the Pacific war; they routinely flew replacement Corsairs, Hellcats, Helldivers and Avengers from the jeep carriers to the fast big carriers when the big boys started running short of aircraft before their combat tour was over. It was (and is still) actually far easier to take off from a smaller deck than it was to land.

They put Wildcats on those little carriers for two reasons: they could more safely land on those smaller decks and they took up less space while still capable of performing the necessary light CAP, escort and ground attack functions, not because they could take off from them more easily.

cheers

horseback