DCS : F4U-1 Corsair

[GUCCI]

7 hours ago, jabbabzh said:

hi, for people who fly other warbird , which one is better ? this one or spit / P51 , i mean in term of feelings, graphics etc?

 

to be completely honest- choose whichever one appeals to you the most and do the 2 week free trial VIA the ED launcher. try them all if you wish. 

My personal favorites are the 109, P51, P47 and the Mossie. all 4 feel fantastic to fly, especially the newer mossie and P47. Just test fly them all and see what calls to you.

F4U is a brand new module, it will def need some tweaks and more work, but i have a feeling it'll soon become one of my favorites. Every EA launch has its quirks and downsides, 

so we just have to be patient.

[Nodak]

Does it have a smoke generation pod load out for aerobatics?  

[MasaMan]

1 hour ago, Qcumber said:

The 109 is much easier to dogfight than a P-47 (well for me at least). It has a good balance of speed, rate of climb and turn performance. Guns are nose mounted. The 12.7mm guns are surprisingly effective even if there are only 2, and the 30 mm canan packs a punch up close. I would like to test it against a Corsair. I'm not sure if it happened in real life though. Maybe defending the Tirpiz in Norway? 

They're actually 13mm hence the name MG131.

P-47 loses to K-4 in every situation coz K-4 is just such a good plane.

[Qcumber]

15 minutes ago, MasaMan said:

They're actually 13mm hence the name MG131

Good point but I like to shave my bullets down so they are a bit lighter

 

16 minutes ago, MasaMan said:

P-47 loses to K-4 in every situation coz K-4 is just such a good plane.

Oh yes! 

[UrgentSiesta]

21 hours ago, Hayrake YE-ZB said:

A small reminder that the WWII carrier pattern is much lower and closer than the jet pattern that we are used to flying. The long nosed birds flew a curved pattern all the way to the stern. Don’t forget to get the ship moving and/or add some natural wind so you have 30 knots of wind over the deck.

Thanks!

This looks like a Hellcat pattern. Are the Vspeeds the same as for F4U?

[AJaromir]

6 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

This looks like a Hellcat pattern. Are the Vspeeds the same as for F4U?

Corsair approach speed is 90 - 100 KTS IAS with flaps fully down. Do not go over 100 mph because it causes flaps retraction.

Edited June 20 by AJaromir

[felixx75]

1 hour ago, MasaMan said:

P-47 loses to K-4 in every situation coz K-4 is just such a good plane.

One should actually compare a Bf 109 K4 with a P-47N and not with our P-47D. But that's too OT here 

Edited June 20 by felixx75

[UrgentSiesta]

21 hours ago, chaos said:

pitch & roll: deadzone 4, curvature 10

Yes. Never took to it. I cannot take-off much less -land that kite with the narrow track. It also exhibits the porpoising behaviour that should't be there IMO.

I don 't get why the jets are totally fine. Stable as a rock and a joy to fly. There's no reason why WW2 birds cannot.

You can hit the numbers spot on. You can have the model follow the performance curves within a few percentage points and making it feel like you're flying a kite in a winter storm. 

However, I appreciate all the comments and suggestions! maybe it's just me but I do find it frustrating. DCS WW2 could be so much better if the "feel" was there...

This is really a "you" problem, not a DCSW problem.

For e.g., the F-14 doesn't fly anything like the FA-18, and it requires quite a bit of rudder, trim and power adjustments on a very frequent basis.

Helicopters are very much the same.

MANY WW2 pilots & planes crashed due to the challenging and unforgiving nature of warbirds.

You need to do some research.

You need to adjust your joystick saturation & curves significantly per the many guides available, and most of all, you need to PRACTICE. Then again. And then some more.

Eventually, it'll click for you, and once it does, you'll have a great time 

The journey is worth it.

[Iron_Man]

I guess what I’m trying to say is in a dogfight with the best axis plane Bf-109K in DCS, F-4U is not really different from the heavy P-47. The Corsair should be more maneuverable, right?

Edited June 20 by Iron_Man

[AJaromir]

My feelings about FM is:

Quite common static stability for WWII warbird

Extremely high dynamic stability for such heavy WWII warbird

Gyroscopic precession is a thing (same like in P-47). Propeller with diameter around 5 meters results in big changes of yaw when trying to push or pull.

Same for P-factor and SlipStream. Changing throttle results in need to change the rudder a lot.

2 minutes ago, Iron_Man said:

guess what I’m trying to say is in a dogfight with the best axis plane Bf-109K in DCS, F-4U is not really different from the heavy P-47.

You don't need maneuverability when you can fly at speed of 600 km/h in altitude of 10 km. Noone can catch you.

[Lord_Pyro]

33 minutes ago, AJaromir said:

Corsair approach speed is 90 - 100 KTS IAS with flaps fully down. Do not go over 100 mph because it causes flaps retraction.

For a Carrierlanding? I achieved very stable approaches with flaps 30° an speed around 120-130 kts (indicated of course)

 

But no matter the technique, overall it's just like back in the old IL2 '46 days. Find a speed you are comfortable with, aim for the deck and land there 

[AJaromir]

3 minutes ago, Lord_Pyro said:

For a Carrierlanding? I achieved very stable approaches with flaps 30° an speed around 120-130 kts (indicated of course)

 

But no matter the technique, overall it's just like back in the old IL2 '46 days. Find a speed you are comfortable with, aim for the deck and land there 

According to DCS flight manual, page 24

 

Edited June 20 by AJaromir

[LcSummers]

On 6/19/2025 at 5:56 PM, Rudel_chw said:

 

Hi,

 

Please, once you install your new Module, can you take a look at its following folder: DCS/Mods/name-of-corsair/Cockpit/Shape  ?

I wan't to know if I will be able to load its cockpit 3d-shape on Model Viewer, before I commit to a purchase, thanks a lot 

 

Eduardo

Sorry mate,

 

did not installed the module yet. 

[Qcumber]

49 minutes ago, AJaromir said:

Gyroscopic precession is a thing (same like in P-47). Propeller with diameter around 5 meters results in big changes of yaw when trying to push or pull.

Yes. Constant trim adjustments. Once you get used to it, it's OK. 

I noticed that jumping into a flying start with the F4U the trim settings are all over the place. That might explain why people are finding it so "twitchy".

[AJaromir]

10 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

Yes. Constant trim adjustments. Once you get used to it, it's OK. 

I noticed that jumping into a flying start with the F4U the trim settings are all over the place. That might explain why people are finding it so "twitchy".

According to flight manual for carrier take off:

Roll trim : 6° right

Yaw trim: 6° right

Pitch trim: 1° tail heavy

 

From my experience if you want to trim the aircraft:

1) Stabilise pitch and roll first by stick and keep it stable.

2) After the pitch and roll is stabilised, stabilise yaw.

3) Set trim to yaw while keeping pitch and roll stable by stick.

4) Set trim to pitch and roll until you apply no pressure on stick.

Edited June 20 by AJaromir

[MasaMan]

1 hour ago, felixx75 said:

One should actually compare a Bf 109 K4 with a P-47N and not with our P-47D. But that's too OT here 

Yea well obviously we compare the planes that we have in DCS especially since they can go head on online. 

[Qcumber]

17 minutes ago, AJaromir said:

According to flight manual for carrier take off:

Roll trim : 6° right

Yaw trim: 6° right

Pitch trim: 1° tail heavy

 

From my experience if you want to trim the aircraft:

1) Stabilise pitch and roll first by stick and keep it stable.

2) After the pitch and roll is stabilised, stabilise yaw.

3) Set trim to yaw while keeping pitch and roll stable by stick.

4) Set trim to pitch and roll until you apply no pressure on stick.

I agree with you there. I was referring to an air start. You have to quickly adjust trim settings otherwise it is twitchy, which might explain why people need to warbirds are finding it difficult. 

[UrgentSiesta]

1 hour ago, Iron_Man said:

I guess what I’m trying to say is in a dogfight with the best axis plane Bf-109K in DCS, F-4U is not really different from the heavy P-47. The Corsair should be more maneuverable, right?

My (limited) understanding is that Corsair isn't a turn fighter. It was designed for extremely high speed & performance, which usually came at the expense of maneuverability.

109 is somewhat similar, so I wouldn't necessarily expect one to be better than the other.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did a theoretical analysis of Corsair & Hellcat vs 109 & 190. I'll have to rewatch to see where that netted out 

[Rudel_chw]

30 minutes ago, LcSummers said:

Sorry mate,

 

did not installed the module yet. 

 

Hi, thanks but don't worry about it, as in the meantime my query was answered here:

 

 

Cheers

[Iron_Man]

2 минуты назад, UrgentSiesta сказал:

My (limited) understanding is that Corsair isn't a turn fighter. It was designed for extremely high speed & performance, which usually came at the expense of maneuverability.

109 is somewhat similar, so I wouldn't necessarily expect one to be better than the other.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did a theoretical analysis of Corsair & Hellcat vs 109 & 190. I'll have to rewatch to see where that netted out 

I couldn’t outrun the 109K at full power see at level in F-4U

[Qcumber]

2 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

My (limited) understanding is that Corsair isn't a turn fighter. It was designed for extremely high speed & performance, which usually came at the expense of maneuverability.

109 is somewhat similar, so I wouldn't necessarily expect one to be better than the other.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did a theoretical analysis of Corsair & Hellcat vs 109 & 190. I'll have to rewatch to see where that netted out 

My initial feeling is that it turns much better than a P-47 or FW190 and retains energy quite well, but I don't think it is up to the same performance as a 109. 

In the words of Harry Hill, there's only one way to find out....FIGHT! 

[Hiob]

6 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

My (limited) understanding is that Corsair isn't a turn fighter. It was designed for extremely high speed & performance, which usually came at the expense of maneuverability.

109 is somewhat similar, so I wouldn't necessarily expect one to be better than the other.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did a theoretical analysis of Corsair & Hellcat vs 109 & 190. I'll have to rewatch to see where that netted out 

The Corsair doesn’t strike me as a high speed design. Whereas, given the huge surfaces, I could imagine it as being good at turning. But that is only my unprofessional deduction from the optics.

[Qcumber]

5 minutes ago, Hiob said:

The Corsair doesn’t strike me as a high speed design. Whereas, given the huge surfaces, I could imagine it as being good at turning. But that is only my unprofessional deduction from the optics.

I think it is a fast aircraft on paper, similar to a P-51, but the comparisons are not really meaningful. The P-51 was high altitude and the F4U was designed for low to mid altitude operations. 

[AJaromir]

First of all you have to use aircafts in a way of realism.

1) Corsair is made for carrier take-offs and landings.

2) The goal is to win war/battle. Not to kill or destroy something. Because of that the highest priority are the ground targets. And Corsair is meant to be used as the strike aircraft

3) The best defense in those days was to fly as high and as fast as possible. That's why I think the Mosquito and the P-47 were some of the best planes ever, even though the P-47 had major range issues.

4) It follows from the previous point that energy is more than maneuverability.

 

Here's a nice video of the Germans convincing the Japanese that their most vaunted KI-27 is actually a mistake, and the reviled KI-44 is instead their best creation.

 

Edited June 20 by AJaromir

[Cunctator]

The F4U is no Zero, but turn rate and maneuverability a quite good for plane of that size. Navy wartime test did show that the F4U could easily out turn a FW-190A or P-51B.

F4U_vs_Fw190-P-51B.pdf