Spoiler alert: Corsair’s contraption solved lift loss problem

There were all sorts of problems with getting the Corsair ready for carrier operations.

Besides the bouncy landing gear and super-long “hose nose,” early versions of the “Bent Wing Bird” had the nasty habit of stalling, one wing before the other. When a startled pilot went to compensate for the unpleasant surprise just feet above the wave tops, well, all sorts of bad things began to happen.

The fix was simple. Engineers had to make both wings of the “U-Bird” lose lift simultaneously. In order to do it, a spoiler, more accurately called a “stall strip” was affixed to the leading edge of the starboard wing, outboard of the guns. Only 6 inches long, the simple triangular “thingamabob” made the Corsair behave predictably, that is to say, stall symmetrically, which lowered aviators’ blood pressure significantly.

The oldest Corsairs in the fleet had home-made wooden blocks. Later, the fighters came from the factory with the strip already in place. You can see the stall strip in this photo, on Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum’s newly-restored FG-1D Corsair.