Following the release of our 1/72 Vought F4U-1 Bird Cage Corsair, we proudly announce the F4U-1A Corsair as the latest addition to the 1/72 War Birds Collection. This model bridges the gap between the F4U-1 Bird Cage and F4U-1D Corsairs to better chronicle the changes that this aircraft had undergone.
Introduced into service in 1942, the Vought F4U-1 featured inverted gull wings and a massive 2,000hp engine spinning the largest propeller mounted on a fighter at the time. While the fighters performance and toughness was quite impressive, deficiencies such as inadequate forward visibility, restricted all-round visibility due to the early frame-like canopy, and the tendency for the left and right wings to stall at different speeds led to various improvements being added throughout production, eventually resulting in the F4U-1A version. These improvements included a longer tailwheel leg for better forward visibility, a new canopy for better all-round visibility, and an almost unnoticeable 15cm stall strip fixed to the leading edge of the right wing to ensure both wings would stall at the same speed.
