The land-based Marines got the Corsair first because the weird stall speed encountered when doing carrier landings made the beast drop severely. The bounce was difficult at best to handle, and the bounce often led to the tail hook missing the carrier deck arrestor cables. Many Corsairs plowed into planes arrayed on the forward portion of the carrier deck. The Brits figured out how to cope with this characteristic with Corsairs they acquired.
The short landing gear was a result of needed deck/strip clearance for the 13’-4” diameter three-blade prop on the first Corsairs. The inimitable gull wing of the F4U was a design fix to permit shorter and thus stiffer landing gear suitable for carrier duty.
Never bored with the fact that the 13’-4” prop arc sweeps 140 square feet.
Yep.I think it was one of the biggest Ham-standard props at the time.