chumpynut5 82 points83 points 1 year ago

IIRC the U.S. F4U Corsair also used sirens, but they built into the wings instead of the wheel fairings. So the Stuka wasn’t the only one

volfanatic 126 points127 points 1 year ago

The F4U did whistle but it was unintentional. It was because of how the air moved over the intake for the oil radiator.

Edit: The P-51D makes the a similar howl due the the aerodynamics of its wings. I'm not sure but I'll believe it's due to the unique shape of the leading edge of its wing root.

chumpynut5 38 points39 points 1 year ago

Ah neat, wasn’t sure the exact reason, I just remember my grandfather telling me they whistled lol he worked on later generations of the Corsair as an engineer. The F4U is by far one of my favorite planes though, they’re so pretty

wemblinger 2 points3 points 1 year ago

Japanese called Corsairs "whistling death" because of the sound.

LestyZemmons 0 points1 point 1 year ago

The Corsair is definitely my favourite WWII era aircraft, with the Thunderbolt a close second

CrowdScene 14 points15 points 1 year ago

GelfandFomin 19 points20 points 1 year ago

Additionally, it sounds more like a painful howl than the stuka’s siren.

brazzledazzle 31 points32 points 1 year ago

It sounds surprisingly similar for being unintentional:

SignorSarcasm 28 points29 points 1 year ago

Holy christ, the corsair is SUCH A FUCKING SWEET PLANE.

volfanatic 0 points1 point 1 year ago

It was designed as a fighter plane. It did end up being utilized more for air support than air superiority but that wasn't what the designers envisioned as its primary role. You aren't going to scare an enemy pilot because your plane whistles if observed from a specific angle. It was definitely unintentional.

accidental-poet 8 points9 points 1 year ago

The P-51 whistle is due to the staggered 50cal guns. Air passing over the inboard guns are what cause the whistle. It's the same affect as blowing air across a bottle.

The was a demonstration of this using an air gun in the Plane Resurrection series on PBS. If you're into vintage aircraft, I highly recommend the entire series!

Found it:

volfanatic 1 point2 points 1 year ago

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that.

corsair238 1 point2 points 1 year ago

Oh hey, that's the plane my account is named after. Saw the corsair in a WW2 documentary when I was like 10 and it stuck.

cheaptrainride 0 points1 point 1 year ago

They did the same thing with some passenger planes, left some cavities in the wing to make it a giant flute