the main reason the wings were gulled is for landing gear height to accomodate the huge prop.
the plane was designed from day 1 as a carrier aircraft but not used as such for quite a while; they started out land-based with the marines; many were crashed early on in ground maneuvers/landings due to pisspoor visibility.
carrier landins are brutal on landing gear; it had to be extremely beefy to pass muster.
the added dihedral of the gull wing improves stability.
chance vought engineers were known as free-thinkers; unconventional solutions to problems were their specialty.
i dont know of any other reasons; would like to though.
|