Editing Vought F4U Corsair (section)

===Landing gear and wings===
[[File:F4U-Corsair OE-EAS OTT 2013 04 main landing gear.jpg|thumb|upright|Landing gear on an F4U-4 Corsair.]]
To accommodate a folding wing, the designers considered retracting the main landing gear rearward, but for the [[Chord (aircraft)|chord of wing]] that was chosen, making the landing gear struts long enough to provide ground clearance for the large propeller was difficult. Their solution was an [[gull wing|inverted gull wing]], which considerably shortened the required length of the struts.<ref name="Green p. 188">Green 1973, p. 188.</ref> The [[Dihedral (aircraft)|anhedral]] of the wing's inboard section also permitted the wing and fuselage to meet at the optimum angle for minimizing [[Parasitic drag|drag]], without using wing-root fairings.<ref name="Green p. 188"/> The bent wing was heavier and more difficult to construct, however, offsetting these benefits.

The Corsair's aerodynamics were an advance over those of contemporary naval fighters. The F4U was the first U.S. Navy aircraft to feature landing gear that retracted into a fully enclosed wheel well. The landing gear [[oleo strut]]s—each with its own strut door enclosing it when retracted—rotated through 90° during retraction, with the wheel atop the lower end of the strut when retracted. A pair of rectangular doors enclosed each wheel well, leaving a streamlined wing.<ref name="Swinhert">{{Cite web|title=Vought F4U Corsair|url=http://www.aviation-history.com/vought/f4u.html|first=Earl|last=Swinhert|access-date=12 June 2023|website=The Aviation History Online Museum}}</ref> This swiveling, aft-retracting landing gear design was common to the [[Curtiss P-40 Warhawk|Curtiss P-40]] (and its predecessor, the [[Curtiss P-36 Hawk|P-36]]), as adopted for the F4U Corsair's main gear and its Pacific War counterpart, the [[Grumman F6F Hellcat]]. The oil coolers were mounted in the heavily anhedraled inboard section of the wings, alongside the [[supercharger]] air intakes, and used openings in the leading edges of the wings, rather than protruding scoops. The large fuselage panels were made of [[aluminum]]<ref>Kinzey, Bert. ''F4U Corsair In Detail And Scale, Part 1''. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc., 1998. {{ISBN|1-888974-08-7}}.</ref> and were attached to the frames with the newly developed technique of [[spot welding]], thus mostly eliminating the use of rivets. While employing this new technology, the Corsair was also the last American-produced [[fighter aircraft]] to feature fabric as the skinning for the top and bottom of each outer wing, aft of the main [[Spar (aviation)|spar]] and armament bays, and for the [[aileron]]s, [[Elevator (aircraft)|elevators]], and [[rudder]]. The elevators were also constructed from plywood.<ref>Russell 1984, p. 26.</ref> The Corsair, even with its streamlining and high-speed abilities, could fly slowly enough for carrier landings with full [[flap (aircraft)|flap]] deployment of 50°.