The Corsair II is one of my most favorite planes. Developed on a tight budget, delivered on time and ever so barely overweight. Last of a long line of successful aircraft from Vought (Ling Temco Vought by the time the A-7 was made).
This SLUF (Slow Little Ugly Fucker) is an A-7C with the TF30-P-408 engine upgrades made in 1971. The C variant is interesting in that it wasn't intended to be made at all. A-7C was reserved then skipped with the next variant after the A-7B being the Air Force's A-7D. The Navy liked many of the changes made in developing the A-7D and requested their own version, the A-7E. But there weren't enough TF41-A-2 engines to go around so the first run of what should have been the E model came with the same TF30-P-8 engine as the B.
A-7 fan here, too.
ReplyDeleteWhat I always remember is the Trivial Pursuit factoid that the Corsair II could lug a bomb load roughly twice that of the B-17.
But only half as far, twice as fast.
ReplyDeleteSomething else that gets missed in some comparisons like that is an A-7 could outperform pretty much any WW2 fighter too! Sustained g as well as speed.
I am often struck that there are situations in the 'Nam era planes where I am concerned I am getting too slow and running out of energy to maneuver then realizing that those are past the corner speeds of WW2 planes and far past "do not exceed" speeds on WW1 aircraft.
No slack in Light Attack.
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