HISTORICAL MINIATURES BY GEORGE GRASSE

CLASSIC AIRCRAFT BETWEEN THE WARS

VOUGHT O2U-1 "CORSAIR" of VS-5S c. 1927-

1935
by George Grasse

WINGS MODELS 1:48 SCALE VACU-FORMED MULTI-MEDIA KIT WM48008 OF THE VOUGHT
02U-1 "CORSAIR", SHIPBOARD OBSERVATION FLOAT PLANE OF VS-5S, LIGHT CRUISER U. S. S.
RALEIGH

WINGS MODELS VOUGHT O2U-1 "CORSAIR" BOX ART

This image of the kit's "box art" shows Vought O2U-1 "Corsair" A-7536 of
Observation Squadron 3 (VO-3S for short) of the light cruiser USS Raleigh
(CL-7) in 1927, the year the "Corsair" was first deployed to the fleet. The
image is based on a photo that appears in U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941 & U.
S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959", page 58.1 The photo is also the basis
for a good color profile appearing in "Wings of the Fleet - US Navy &
Marine Corps Aviation 1919-1941", page 31.2 When not serving aboard ship
and based on land, float gear was replaced by landing gear.

VOUGHT O2U-1 "CORSAIR" THREE-

VIEW
 This image is taken from the Aviastar website
and shows the landing gear arrangement
superimposed on the float gear.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/vought_o2u.php

VOUGHT O2U "CORSAIR" SERIES U. S. NAVY/U. S.

MARINE CORPS /U. S. COAST GUARD "A" PREFIX
BUREAU NUMBERS
A total of 291 O2U series aircraft were delivered to the U. S.
Navy/U. S. Marine Corps/U. S. Coast Guard. This list excludes
Vought O2U Series aircraft sold to other than the
USN/USMC/USCG, namely 88 aircraft sold to foreign countries
and private institutions. This brought total production to 379 O2U
series aircraft. The series was improved to subsequent models,
namely the O3U, O4U, and SU variants but they are not considered
here. 3

O2U
Serial Qty Cum Deployment Year
Model
O2U-1 A7221 -
2 2 USN 1926
A7222
A7528 -
33 35 USN/USMC 1926
A7560
 A7567 - 20 55 USN/USMC 1926
A7586
A7796 -
36 91 USN/USMC 1926
A7831
A7900 -
41 132 USN/USMC 1926
7940
A8091 -
O2U-2 37 169 USN/USCG 1928
A8127
A8193 -
O2U-3 80 249 USN/USMC 1929
8272
A8315 -
O2U-4 42 291 USN/USMC 1929
A8356

O2U "CORSAIR" HISTORY

In the second half of 1926, the U. S. Navy issued a contract for the first Vought
O2U-1 powered with the new Pratt & Whitney R-1340B radial engine. In late
November 1926. the first flight was made and deliveries began shortly after. The
first squadron to take delivery was VO-7M on 17 December 1927. The
production run for the O2U series would run until 1931 numbering 291 aircraft
of the O2U-1, -2, -3, and -4 variants. The last reported aircraft in squadron
service was an O2U-2 belonging to VB-2B on 30 April 1936. 4

In 1926, the total number of U. S. Navy aircraft totaled 888 of which 600 were
combat aircraft and 288 classified as other (mostly trainers, some transports,
and a few miscellaneous). The following table illustrates the growth of Naval
Aviation during the service life of the O2U series with comparisons to World War
II levels. 5

Total
Year Combat Other Aircraft Carriers
Acft
1926 888 600 288 1 - USS Langley

1927 886 599 287 1- USS Langley

3- USS Langley,
1928 851 605 246
Lexington, Saratoga
3- USS Langley,
1929 1038 664 374
Lexington, Saratoga
3- USS Langley,
1930 1081 734 347
Lexington, Saratoga
1940 3437 1774 1663 6 CV and 1 CVE
20 CV, 8 CVL, and 70
1945 40912 29125 11787
CVE

The O2U-1 broke several world records. On 14 April 1927, it broke the altitude
record at 22,178 feet. On 23 April 1927, it broke the 100 kilometer (km) speed
course record at 147.263 mph. On 30 April 1927, it broke the 500 km speed
course record at 136.023 mph. On 21 May 1927, it broke the 1000 km speed
course record at 130.932 mph. 6 The point here shows the technical advance by
Pratt & Whitney in engine development and the fact that a two-seater for that
time out-performed all other naval aircraft albeit briefly. The O2U was intended
 as a single-engine, two-seat float aircraft to operate as a catapult observation
aircraft for beyond-the-horizon reconnaissance.

The year 1930 was the last year in which the O2U series was the primary
observation aircraft of the fleet. In 1931, the O3U was taking over as
observation aircraft on most battleships of the fleet and the O2U was appearing
more often as a utility aircraft or squadron "hack". This would last well into
1936 when the first Grumman JF-1 "Duck" and Curtiss SOC appeared as the
new utility and observation aircraft, respectively. By 1938, the Curtiss SOC
series was the dominant observation aircraft of the fleet. When introduced in
1926-27, the Vought O2U series maintained a service life of about ten years
making it quite successful as a float observation aircraft for the U. S. Navy and a
land-based two-seater scout-bomber for the U. S. Marine Corps. 7

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #1

20 April 2012

THE BEGINNING: This is my first vacu-form kit and aside

from the known amount of work involved I am interested in
trying out this form of 1:48 scale aircraft modeling. Most of
the detailed parts, the struts, and engine are not worth the
effort. Fortunately, Wings Models includes a white metal
radial engine and I have experience making my own brass
tube/brass rod struts and cockpit details. In this view, I glued
the front fuselage and front cockpit formers in place. I made
another former for the rear cockpit. The floorboard fits nicely
between the two. Now I have to consider internal cockpit
detail before gluing the two fuselage halves together. Before
starting, I suggest that the modeler review John Lester's
review of this kit on the internet.8
 UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #2
20 April 2012

WINGS ARE STARTED: This view shows at the top the rough cut-out of
one half of the upper wing. The middle photo shows the other half trimmed
and thinned at the trailing edge ready for gluing to the top. The bottom is the
lower wing glued together. It will be cut in half to fit into the bottom of the
fuselage. The plastic material is soft enough to cut and sand without too
much trouble.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #3

14 May 2012

REINFORCING THE MAIN FLOAT: The image at the bottom of the photo
 shows the one half of the float section cut from the vacu-formed sheet,
trimmed, and sanded. The other half was similarly done and fitted together
for a match. The upper image shows two reinforcing bulkheads glued in
place. They were made from leftover vacu-formed cut-offs.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #4

17 June 2012

MAJOR COMPONENTS WELL UNDERWAY: The top piece is the completed lower wing
which has been glued together (top and bottom), filled with putty, and sanded. The main
float is now glued together, filled with putty, and sanded. The same procedure was used on
the horizontal tail. In the bottom of the photo is shown the beginning of cockpit interior
detail. The engine bulkhead was glued in place first after trial fitting with both halves of the
fuselage. The forward and rear cockpit bulkheads were done likewise. Small plastic cleats
made from stock material were glued to support the floorboard which was made from
leftover vacu-formed plastic sheet.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #5

23 December 2012
 FUSELAGE HALVES JOINED: I should have photographed
both fuselage halves showing the interior detail work added. I
used Eduard's pre-painted PE sheet FE303 for the SBU2-3
Vindicator. The fuselage halves went together easily and
dried over night with the aid of rubber bands. Putty was
applied to the seam lines and sanded down with 300 grit
sandpaper.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS #6a and 6b

23 December 2012

COCKPIT INTERIOR PHOTOS: These two photos show some of the detail I added to the
interior. The kit's vacu-formed seats were cut out, trimmed, and painted with Vallejo VC0864
Natural Steel. The lap belts were from the Eduard Vindicator PE sheet. The shoulder belts were
made from sheet lead foil and painted with Vallejo VC0914 Green Ochre, a close match to the
Eduard pre-painted belts. All of the instrumentation in the photos comes from the same Eduard
Vindicator PE sheet. All interior surfaces including the floor were painted with Vallejo VC0907
Light Pale Glue Gray. Many panel lines and other details were lost during the sanding process.
Incidentally, I used Vallejo VC0401 Plastic Putty (tube) on this model. It dries to a harder finish
than a putty filler such as Green Putty or Model Master's Red Putty.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #7

 26 December 2012

FLYING SURFACES ADDED: The fuselage has the slightest of imbedded

"cross-hatched lines" that identify the location of the lower wing and
horizontal tail. First, however, each of these has to be cut in half. The cross
hatching marks for the lower wing halves was cut out with an X-Acto #11
bladed tool. This took more than just a few "cut and fit" iterations for fear of
over-cutting and leaving a large unwanted gap. Finally, the fit was quite
good. I used plastic cement for most of the gluing but used super glue
underneath along the wing-fuselage seam to speed up the the process and get
the wings in the correct configuration. This was done completely by "eye
ball".

The tail was a different story. I decided to forego the cutting out process and,
instead, opted for a brass pin, plastic cement, and a little super glue. I'm not
disappointed in my first vacu-form kit.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #8

9 January 2013
 MAIN FLOAT ATTACHED: Two views of the attached main float. The struts were made from brass tubing
through which a smaller diameter brass rod was inserted. The rods protruded from both ends of the strut to serve
as anchors. Before the actual attachment, I pre-drilled all of the holes for the rigging on the fuselage underside
and float topside. The object sticking up in the rear cockpit is a brass rod in the shape of a hook attached to .005
monofilament thread so I could suspend the model for these photos.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #9

9 December 2013

WORK IS RESUMED: Almost one year later than the panel above, I resumed work on the
Vought O2U-1 Corsair. This photo and the following three (photos 9 thru 12) summarize the
work I've done in December 2013. Panel 8 above shows the Corsair in its overall aluminum
finish (Tamiya TM8017 Aluminum Silver). I painted the upper surfaces of the tail unit and
top wing (not shown) with Tamiya's TM8034 Camel Yellow and darkened the elevator hinge
line with a dark brown/black liner. The rudder colors were hand painted using Vallejo
acrylics (VC0947 Red, VC0951 White, and VC0963 Medium Blue). The same colors were
used to paint the propeller tips except that Vallejo VC0953 Yellow was used as the center
color.
 UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #10
9 December 2013

THE ENGINE: I went to work on the engine concurrently with a number of other tasks and
finished the cast metal engine supplied with the kit to replace its poor vacu-form engine. The
engine warming plate had to be drilled out. Its purpose was to accelerate warming of engine
oil when the air vents were closed. During flight, the air vents were opened. I just might add
additional detail now that the engine is in place and looks pretty simple as shown. The
propeller is also metal and needs to be seated a little deeper than shown.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #11

9 December 2013
MAKING A FOUR-WHEEL FLOAT TROLLEY: The kit does not supply a land trolley so I
built one to my imagination using 25mm Minifigs small wagon wheels and plastic bar stock.
The trolley was painted Vallejo VC0870 Medium Sear Gray. The wheels were painted in a
mix I labeled "Iron". This view shows to great effect the rigging detail of the main float.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #12

9 December 2013

DECALS: The decals that come with the kit represent a Corsair from the U. S. S. Raleigh, a
heavy cruiser. I painted a yellow circle as background for the squadron insignia. After the
decals were applied, I sprayed the model with satin polyurethane.
 UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #13a
31 March 2014

TOP WING ATTACHMENT, RIGHT SIDE VIEW: The Corsair's wing struts are
splayed outwards and there is a slight stagger. This panel (13a) describes how the
struts were made; the panel below (13b) describes the top wing attachment.

In most of my biplane kit builds, I substitute kit struts for hand-made brass struts.
The finished strut is a flattened, aerodynamic brass tube with a brass rod insert. The
insert prevents the brass tube from collapsing during the light hammering process and
the inserts, which protrude from both ends, serve as attachment points to the wings.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #13b

31 March 2014
 TOP WING ATTACHMENT, LEFT SIDE VIEW: The wing struts measure exactly
the same according to the front view of the kit's drawings. Each strut was super
glued in place with a slight stagger forward and an outward "splay". When dry, the
top wing was mounted. Some additional bending of the a couple of struts was
required to get the top centered from the front and from above according to the
drawings. Each was given an additional dot or two of super glue. The loose
monofilament thread are all of the rigging wires for the wing bays. The top wing has
a slight bow in the center but the attachment of the cabane struts later will bring the
top wing into alignment.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #14

3 April 2014

STRUTS COMPLETED: This photo shows all of the brass tube/rod struts in place. They
will be primed and painted.
 UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #15a
5 April 2014

RIGGING AND DETAILS: Rigging with .005 monofilament thread is completed.

Windscreens for the pilot and observer/gunner are installed. I used an old Nieuport 16
windscreen for the pilot and fashioned one from clear sheet plastic for the observer/gunner.
All of the struts have been primed and painted with Misterkit MKFC01 French WW1
Aluminum. Note also the foot step below the rear cockpit fashioned from brass rod. Barely
visible at the front of the main float is the docking cleat also fashioned from brass rod. On
each side of fuselage root is a hand-painted matt black wing walk.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PHOTO #15b

5 April 2014
 MORE DETAILS: The docking cleat on the bow of the main float is clearly visible. At the
rear of each wing strut is an aileron strut made from brass rod. The U. S. Navy version had a
single top wing mounted .30 caliber machine gun located to the right of the center line. It is
somewhat visible as a black line just above the space between the pilot's windscreen and the
engine.

FINISHED PHOTOS
 -------------------------------------------- FINIS --------------------------------------------

FOOTNOTES

1 Larkins,William T. U. S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941 and U. S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959. The year-by-year U. S.
Navy section of this book concludes each year with an aviation deployment schedule of all aircraft on ships of the fleet. USS
Raleigh (CL-7) was part of the U. S. Navy's Scouting Fleet in 1927. In 1928, VO-3S changed its designation to VS-5S and
furnished catapult-launched O2U-1 and UO-1C scout aircraft to Light Cruiser Divisions Two and Three consisting of the
USS Concord, USS Cincinnati, USS Detroit, USS Marblehead, USS Richmond, and USS Raleigh.

2 Freeman, Peter. "Wings of the Fleet - US Navy & Marine Corps Aviation 1919-1941", page 31. The insignia of OS-3S and
later VS-5S was a black bat on a black-outlined yellow circle with VO at the top and 3S at the bottom in black. Note also
black "3 / 3" identification which uses the forward slash instead of "O" for ease of recognition. Each ship to which an
observation aircraft belonged displayed the ship's name above the identification, in this case "USS Raleigh" in black.

3 The Vought Heritage website, covers all Vought "products" including the O2U with a brief history of the series, a production
table (by year, model, and customer), specifications for the land and seaplane versions, and several photos.

4 Pearson, Lee M. and Adrian O. Van Wyen, United States Naval Aviation 1910-1970 (NAVAIR 00-80P-1), Appendix V,
pages 320-321. The Pratt & Whitney R-1340B was revolutionary and powered the O2U-1 and -2. The engine was upgraded
to the R-1340C for the O2U-3 and -4 but overall output rating remained at 450 hp (engine information from Larkins' book, U.
S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941 and U. S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959 page 332).
5 ibid, Appendix V, pages 299-300. Aircraft carrier information is taken from Appendix III, pages 287 and 297.

6 ibid, Part II, page 61.

7 Larkins, William T., ibid, pages 90-229 but primarily the year deployments 1930-1938 within those pages.

8 Lester, John. Wings 1/48 Vought O2U 'Corsair', internet article (see bibliography). Not a builder's review but just the kit
itself is discussed. Probably written in the late 90s/early 2000s when the kit's price was $19.95 (today's price in 2012 is
$33.95 available from Don's Model Works, http://www.donsmodelworks.com/index.htm).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Freeman, Peter and Mike Starmer. Wings of the Fleet - US Navy & Marine Aviation 1919-1941, On Target Special.
Ardington, North Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK: The Aviation Workshop Publications, 2010.

Larkins, William T. U. S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941 / U. S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959. Atglen, PA: Schiffer
Military/Aviation History, 1995.

Lester, John. "Wings 1/48 Vought O2U "Corsair", Modeling Madness kit review,
http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/preww2/lesero2upreview.htm

Pearson, Lee M. and Adrian O. Van Wyen. United States Naval Aviation 1910-1970 (NAVAIR 00-80P-1). Washington, D. C.:
U. S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

Vought Heritage Website at http://www.voughtaircraft.com/heritage/index.html.

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