Two Corsairs

[Simpo Two]

Just some nice footage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JnJXqRzzAE

I could never understand what stopped the wings from folding up inadvertently under +G...

[Eric Mc]

Because they were built strong.

[mrmaggit]

Eric Mc said:

Because they were built strong.

Oh yes. My Dad was stationed at Yeovilton during the war where they practiced carrier deck landings on a runway marked out as a simulation carrier deck. He said they used to drop in from 20-odd feet, occasionally a bit more, several managed to shove the landing gear completely through the wing.

He also reckons they used to kill about one pilot a week, and one went through a control caravan (those black and white check things you see in some photos with a semi-circular dome on the top. Apparently the remains of the bloke inside just about filled a bucket.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Because they were built strong.

No, I meant why doesn't the hinge unhinge.

[Eric Mc]

As I said, they were built strong - especially the wing fold mechanism. Carrier borne aircraft have to be built very sturdilly as they undergo severe punishment compared to their land based counterparts.

[Simpo Two]

Yes but how does the wing lock down? In normal flying and especially in climbing the force will be upwards, trying to fold the wing back up (as opposed to against a fixed stop). Nothing to do with the aircraft's structural strength, you've taken a strong thing and cut it into three seperate pieces.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Big locking pins through the (fingered) hinge mechanism.

[Simpo Two]

You know, as I typed that last one I was wondering whether you'd appear with the definitive answer! Right, so wings go down hydraulically then monstrous pins slide across to maintain the spar's intergrity. It was the only answer I coud think of but I'd never heard them mentioned. Ta!

[Eric Mc]

The engineers making these aircraft know what bthey are doing. As Ginetta Girl says, the wings are held in place by big "sod off" (technical term) locking pins. The wingfold system on the Corsair was hydraulically (I think) operated. Earlier wingfold systems were operated manually by ground crew and there were instances where the locking pins were left unlocked - resulting in the wing fold locking system failing in flight.

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Eric Mc said:

the wings are held in place by big "sod off" (technical term) locking pins.

Aye that's definitely the 'technical term'!

Another interesting fact about the FAA operated Corsairs is that they had their wings shortened (by about 6" a side IIRC) because the deck to ceiling space was shorter in RN Carriers than it was in the USN Carriers.

This ties nicely into the B over A ratio discussion we were having about the Jaguar - FAA Corsairs could bite the unwary far harder than could their US counterparts. Apparently they were notorious for flick spins (departures) at low speed.

[The real Apache]

They probably use geometric locks, in other words when the pin mechanism extends it locks out and a second piston is used to unlock it