best WW II fighter, The

Flight Journal, Aug 2003 by Meyer, Corky

Grumman's F6F-3 Hellcat grew out of the Navy's request to put the more powerful 1,700hp Wright R-2600 engine in the Wildcat. The Wildcat's structure, small control surfaces, narrow landing gear and need for a larger-diameter propeller would have required too many major changes to accommodate this 500hp increase. In September 1940, Grumman envisioned a new fighter using information garnered from the British war experience. The Navy had high hopes that its requirements for a high-performance carrier fighter would be met by the Vought F4U-1 Corsair, which had first flown on May 29, 1940. In January 1942, the Navy gave Grumman the go-ahead to produce 1,080 Hellcats as backups to the Corsair.

The Hellcat was designed for the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-10 2,000hp engine, six .50-caliber guns and a centerline bomb rack that would hold a 150-gallon fuel tank or a 1,000-pound bomb. It also had a 1,000-pound-bomb rack on the right wing stub. Bob Hall flew the prototype on July 30, 1942, and Cdr. Fred Trapnell flew it twice in September 1942 and gave it the Navy's approval for mass-production. Grumman delivered 12 Hellcats in 1942 and 2,566 in 1943. By January 1944, Grumman was producing 500 a month, and in March 1945, the monthly production rate hit 605-a U.S. fighter-production delivery record that stood for the entire War.

In addition to its fighter, fighter-bomber and bomber support roles, 229 Hellcat F6F-3Ns and 1,432 F6F-5Ns (with the APS-4 and -6 radar mounted on the left wing) were successfully used as night fighters. With cameras in its aft fuselage, the Hellcat also filled the photorecon role as the F6F-3P and -5P. When the F6F-5 production was started in early 1944, adding a second, 1,000-pound-bomb rack to the left wing stub and six, wing-mounted 5-inch HVAR rocket racks increased its armament capabilities to 3,000 pounds of bombs. No SBD Dauntless or TBF Avenger bomber was ever lost in an aerial attack after the Hellcat began bomber-support operations. As the War progressed, the number of Hellcats on all carriers was constantly increased to take over the strike/attack duties of the SB2C Helldiver and the TBF/TBM Avenger. Navy records show that within the 100 combat-aircraft capacity of the Essex-, Saratoga- and Enterprise-class carriers, the Hellcats increased in number from 36 in mid-1943 to 54 in mid-1944 and to 73 in November 1944.

Navy pilots repeatedly suggested that their 12,275 Hellcats came from the "Ironworks" because it could take so much combat punishment. It was flown to the War's end in all four fighter roles and was considered a "grandfather's airplane" for its gentle handling characteristics.

CONCLUSION

The Grumman Hellcat accounted for 62 percent of all enemy aircraft shot down by the Navy and Marine Corps and for 43 percent of the total shot down by all U.S. fighters in the Pacific. This more than gives it the top score in the air-to-air fighter role in the Pacific. Its fighter-bomber ground-support, photorecon, night-fighter and bomber-support role capabilities adequately qualify it for the accolade of being the best fighter in the Pacific theater.