Corsair for Britain

Officials of United Aircraft & Transport Corp. tried hard to conceal their excitement over an airplane being crated for shipment from East Hartford, Conn, last week. There was nothing extraordinary about the plane. It was a Vought Corsair of a year-old model, such as the U. S. Navy uses for observation, with interchangeable sea and land undercarriages. But its wings and fuselage bore the red-white-&-blue bull's eye insignia of the British Royal Air Force--hence the excitement. The British Air Ministry had bought the ship, presumably to test it as a sample of U. S. fighting craft. One important function to which the Corsair is specially adapted is catapulting from battleships and light cruisers, a maneuver in which the U. S. Navy has always surpassed foreign forces. A reason for U. S. superiority is its development of the single-float type of seaplane gear, as in the Corsair. Foreign seaplanes are usually of the twin-float type which, if strong enough to withstand the shock of catapulting, lacks speed and maneuverability in air. The Corsair shipped to Britain last week lacked the Navy's catapult attachments and had an outmoded machine-gun mount. Reason: Government regulations forbid the export of any model, less than one year old, of fighting equipment built for the U. S.

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