WWII Grumman F6F Hellcat Documentary - World Documentary Channel

The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a carrier-based fighter aircraft developed to change the earlier F4F Wildcat in United States Navy (USN) maintain. The Hellcat was an erstwhile competitor of the faster Vought F4U Corsair for usage as a provider based fighter. However, the Corsair had substantial concerns with service provider landing that the Hellcat did not, enabling the Hellcat to swipe a march as the Navy's leading competitor in the second part of World War II, a position the Hellcat did not give up. The Corsair instead was mainly released to excellent effect in land-based use by the U.S. Marine Corps.
Although the F6F looked like the Wildcat somehow, it was an entirely brand-new style, powered by a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800, the same powerplant utilized for both the Corsair and also the United States Army Air Force's (USAAF) Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. Some armed forces observers labelled the Hellcat as the "Wildcat's huge bro".

WWII Grumman F6F Hellcat Documentary

The F6F was best understood for its duty as a tough, well-designed carrier fighter which was able, after its battle launching in very early 1943, to counter the Mitsubishi A6M Zero and help safeguard air supremacy over the Pacific Theater. Such was the high quality of the fundamental straightforward, simple style, that the Hellcat was the least modified competitor of the battle, with a total of 12,200 being integrateded just over two years.
Hellcats were credited with ruining 5,223 airplane while operational with the united state Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm This was more compared to any sort of other Allied marine airplane. Postwar, the Hellcat was phased out of frontline maintain, but stayed operational as late as 1954 as a night fighter.
Grumman had actually been functioning on a successor to the F4F Wildcat considering that 1938 as well as the contract for the model XF6F-1 was authorized on 30 June 1941. The plane was designed to make use of the Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone two-row, 14-cylinder radial engine of 1,700 hp (1,268 kW) driving a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller.
Postwar, the Hellcat was succeeded by the F8F Bearcat, which was smaller, more powerful (powered by uprated Double Wasp radials) and also much more manoeuvrable, but got in service far too late to view battle in World War II. The Hellcat was utilized for second-line USN obligations, consisting of training. In late 1952, Guided Missile Unit 90 utilized F6F-5K drones, each bring a 2000 lb bomb, to strike bridges in Korea; flying from USS Boxer, radio controlled from an accompanying AD Skyraider. The French Aeronavale was equipped with F6F-5 Hellcats and also used them in Indochina. The Uruguayan Navy also used them up until the early 1960s.
The F6F-5 subtype also got popularity as the very first aircraft used by the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels main trip demonstration group at its development in 1946.