Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms Space By Flag By Year By Tag

Vought F6U Pirate

1946 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

The Chance Vought V-340 was part of a submission to the United States Navy (USN) to meet the requirements for the service's first-ever jet-powered carrier-based fighter. While this requirement has led to competition with the McDonnell FH "Phantom" product (detailed elsewhere on this site), the V-340 product, along with a few others, has attracted at least some interest from U.S. Navy authorities. The V-340 eventually matured into a limited "Corsair" platform, but remains a largely neglected entry in the U.S.

Navy fighter realm.

The proposed aircraft is in the form of a low-wing monoplane with a single tail and rudder-mounted horizontal stabilizers. Tricycle landing gear will be used and the cockpit will be placed on the nose of the nose along with the weapons (4 x 20mm M3 guns are recommended).

On board, the fuel reservoirs will be mounted aft of the pilot's station, while the Westinghouse turbojets will be sunk low in the fuselage -- under and in front of the tail, exhausting. Unlike other early jet fighters of the era, which relied on nose-mounted air intakes or engine nacelles suspended from the wings, the V-340 was envisioned as wing root-mounted air intakes, Inhalation of the only engine unit.

Water engineers estimate their new jet can reach a top speed of 553 mph, a combat radius of 300 nautical miles, and a rate of climb of 4,880 feet per minute. Additional range was achieved through the use of wingtip fuel tanksa physical feature common to jets in the 1940s and 1950s.

The V-340 was such a promising venture that the U.S. Navy approved three aircraft (plus one as a static test aircraft) under the designation "XF6U-1" and eventually "Corsair".

This unique aircraft was favoured for its lightweight approach and estimated performance specifications, which led to a formal contract with Chance Vought on December 29, 1944 - before World War II (1939-1945) Make decisions on the world stage.

The prototype closely mimicked the proposed V-340 and made its maiden flight on October 2, 1946 (World War II ended in August 1945). During flight testing, an underpowered fighter was discovered, leading to the selection of Westinghouse J34-WE-30 series engines. The engine brought afterburner capability, increasing thrust to 4,225 pounds, the first time an afterburner engine has been installed on a Navy jet fighter. Testing also revealed some lateral instability, forcing the rear wing to be slightly rewritten. Due to the improved operation of the new engine, a nozzle and associated fuselage extension were added to the lower part of the aircraft to protect the underside of the tail.

The lateral instability problem was solved by adding "finlets" to the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, giving modern aircraft a rather old-fashioned look.

In 1947, an official production order for 30 copies came. Following the above changes, Vought's model was changed to "V-352" and its maiden flight took place on March 5, 1949. However, the Corsair's production line came to an end quickly, as if the aircraft would never go beyond its current state - so it was not adopted by the US Navy, at least operationally - in fact, the Navy hardly considered it a Jet fighters and mobile plans on the front lines turned to other paths. The F6U Pirate enjoyed a low-key service career as an experimental jet for the U.S. Navy's VX-3 squadron, and nothing more.

Only 30 production-grade machines were built under the F6U-1 designation, while the F6U-1 alone was reserved for conversion to the "F6U-1P" photographic reconnaissance platform. Again, this pattern shape was not adopted by the front line.

The pirate program officially ended in 1950. Final performance specs include a top speed of 596 mph, a range of up to 1,020 nautical miles, a service ceiling of 46,260 feet and a rate of climb of nearly 8,060 feet. every minute.