The F4U-5NL Corsair was manufactured by Chance-Vought in 1948 and delivered to the USMC in March of that year. The “Dash 5” was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-2800-32W engine with dual supercharger to provide 2,350 hp at altitude. The 32W engine also used a water-methanol injection system that could provide a “War Emergency” power boost to an astonishing 2,760 hp for short sprints.

This aircraft was equipped with four 20 millimeter cannons, four bomb/rocket racks under each wing, and could carry an additional drop fuel tank and two napalm tanks. It was modified as a “Night Fighter” with a radar dome mounted on the right wing (since removed) and had been “winterized” for use in low temperature environments, thus the designations N and L.

The original Corsair design specified use of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800, the most powerful production engine available at the time. Harnessing all this horsepower necessitated the use of the largest production propeller available, the 13 ft. 4 in. Hamilton Standard. A byproduct of this marriage was a lack of deck clearance for the massive propeller. Since carrier-based aircraft required short, stout landing gear capable of withstanding the pounding of carrier landings, the ingenious inverted gull-wing shape was employed to raise the propeller arc to a safe distance above the deck.