As applied to an aircraft, the name Corsair has its origins in a series of famous biplanes built for the Navy by the Vought Corporation between World Wars I and II. Later, the name was applied to the famous Vought F4U series of fighters flown by Navy and Marine pilots during World War II.
1935 Vought Corsair
Chance-Vought F4U Corsair I
The Corsair II was developed in response to a Navy requirement for a single-place, fair-weather subsonic attack aircraft capable of carrying a much heavier weapons load than the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. First flight of the new aircraft (Vought A-7D) took place on September 27, 1965. In addition to the Navy and Marine Corps, the USAF as well as air forces of two other nations operated the A-7. The definitive versions of the aircraft are the USAF A-7D and the closely related Navy A-7E.
The lineage of the A-7 can be traced directly to the Vought F-8 Crusader fighter. Like the F-8, the configuration of the A-7 is characterized by a high wing, low horizontal tail, chin inlet, and short landing-gear legs that retract into the fuselage. Since the A-7 is a subsonic aircraft, however, no area ruling is incorporated in the fuselage, which is also shorter and deeper than that of the supersonic F-8. Because of the larger mass flow of the turbofan engine employed in the A-7, the size of the chin inlet is somewhat larger than that of the turbojet-powered F-8. These differences make the A-7 appear shorter and more stubby than the earlier fighter. The A-7 is sometimes unofficially called the SLUF (Sort Ugly Fat Fella) by USAF crews.
Vought A-7D USAF attack aircraft. [Arthur L. Schoeni via AAHS
Close-up view of Vought A-7E Navy attack aircraft. [Peter C. Boisseau]
Vought F-8 Crusader
Original power plant of the A-7 was a nonafterburning version of the Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofan. This is the same engine that, equipped with an afterburner, powers both the F-111 and the F-14. Beginning with the A-7D, however, the more powerful Allison TF41-A-1 turbofan, an American version of the British Rolls-Royce Spey engine, was installed.
A wide assortment of external stores can be accommodated on the A-7. Eight store-mounting positions are provided. There are three pylons under each wing, and a single mounting station is located on each side of the fuselage. Two of the underwing pylons and one of the fuselage mounting stations are visible in above figure. A total of 15,000 pounds of stores can be carried. A six-barrel 20-mm Vulcan cannon is located on the left side of the fuselage near the bottom of the aircraft. A portion of the muzzle of the gun is visible below the word "intake" in the above figure. Although the A-7 was originally intended as a fair-weather aircraft, later versions (beginning with the A-7D) were equipped with extensive electronic gear for all-weather operations.
The A-7 is one of those aircraft with a demonstrated capability of performing well in a wide variety of missions. Other aircraft are faster or have a greater range-payload capability or have a faster rate of climb; sometimes, certain of these characteristics are deemed so important that it dominates the entire design. What results is a "point design" aircraft that can perform one mission extremely well but is relatively much less effective in any other mission. The design parameters of the A-7 were chosen so that the aircraft has great mission versatility. It was successfully employed in just about every conceivable attack role during the Vietnam conflict where it first saw action in 1967.
