F4U-1A

[Pilot]

Maybe the letter a is given by the industry or designers? I will take a look today on some selected images and to see register letters on this early machines.

[MW Giles]

Theory

There was a C and a D and some historian, not understanding the USN system and thinking it worked in the same way as the USAAF, decided there must be an A and a B to fill the gap. Conveniently there were two different canopies, surely they must denote the missing sub types!

Theory may fall down as I do not know what would constitute the B

Martin

[CJE]

Originally Posted by MW Giles

Theory
Theory may fall down as I do not know what would constitute the B

Martin,

The BuAer issued exhaustive lists of suffixes with their meanings.
You can find them on the net very easily.

Among other modifications:
"B" stood for "aircraft built for the British under Lend-Lease".
"C" was for cannon-armed aircraft.
"D" was for drop tanks.
Right on spot as far as the Corsair is concerned.

The only one-off designation regarding the Corsair was the night-fighter version, which was designed F4U-2, while it should have been F4U-1N.
But at that time, night-fighters were probably new to the BuAer and they had not yet made their mind up as how call them.

[Frank Olynyk]

The listing of Bureau Numbers for Naval aircraft at http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/APP09.PDF does not show F4U-1A, only F4U-1 (and 1C and 1D). This is from the
Appendices from United States Naval Aviation 1910-1995

However, checking actual USMC flight logs I find the use of F4U-1A quite frequent. I suspect -1C and -1D to be official USN usage, and -1A to be informal "in the field" usage, based on the Army's use of A, B, C, D, etc to indicate changes.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[CJE]

Thanks Frank.

I eventually found out the answer.

See the attached scan from the book "F4U Corsair" by Nicholas A. Veronico et al, Motorbooks, 1994.
In fact, the designation F4U-1A was only officially approved in May 1944. But at that time, Vought was building F4U-1Ds, Goodyear FG-1Ds and Brewster had gone out of business.
Thus, not a single F4U-1/FG-1/F3A-1 with bubble canopy ever sported the suffix "A" on the rudder.

That settles the matter once and for all.

Thanks to all.

Chris