# @stem_antics on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DexqfaCRcmS
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/76863654-stem-antics-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3e77a82ea8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-10-22T00:11:55.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stem Antics (@stem_antics) — https://gondola.cc/stem_antics

## Caption

The F4U Corsair looks bent for a reason. Every strange line on this aircraft is the answer to a mechanical problem that had no conventional solution.

In 1938, Rex Beisel and the Vought team set out to wrap the smallest possible airframe around the largest engine available: the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, an 18-cylinder twin-row radial producing 2,000 hp. Converting that power into thrust demanded a three-blade Hamilton Standard propeller roughly 13 ft 4 in across. That single number drove the entire design.

The engineering chain reaction:

- Ground clearance: a propeller that large needs the nose held high, which on a straight wing means very long main gear legs
- Carrier loads: long gear legs are heavy and weak under arrested landings, an unacceptable trade on a carrier fighter
- The fix: the inverted gull wing, which drops the wing root low, letting short, stiff gear sit at the lowest point of the bend
- Gear stowage: each leg rotates 90 degrees while retracting rearward, so the wheel lies flat inside the thin wing
- Aerodynamic bonus: the wing meets the fuselage at close to a right angle, cutting interference drag at the root

The result was startling. In October 1940 the XF4U-1 became the first American single-engine production-type fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight.

The leading edges at the wing roots were not wasted either. They housed intakes feeding the oil coolers and supercharger, keeping the cowling clean and the drag low.

The Corsair stayed in production until 1953, longer than any other American piston-engined fighter, with more than 12,000 built.

The strangest shape in the sky was simply the most honest answer to the propeller.

#stemantics #aerospaceengineering #aviationhistory #aircraftdesign #engineering

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## Credits

No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post.

## Tags

engineering, aviationhistory, aerospaceengineering, stemantics, aircraftdesign

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