Ghost of the lake

Air Classics, May 2003 by O'Leary, Michael

ONE OF ONLY TWO FLYABLE GRUMMAN F4F-3 WILDCATS, THIS FINELY-RESTORED EXAMPLE

HONORS THE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS PILOTS THA T STOPPED THE JAPANESE ADVANCE

DURING THE EARLY DAYS Of WORLD WAR TWO

For being a relatively simple aircraft, the development of he Naval fighter that would become known as the Grumman Wildcat was protracted. Originally ordered as biplane (a follow-on to the F3F) in early 1936 and designated XF4F-1, the design did not proceed beyond the papet stage. Fighter development in Europe was rapidly changing the way American designers were regarding their aircraft and it was obvious the day of the biplane combat aircraft was over. Redesigned into the XF4F-2 monoplane, the craft was ordered in July 1936, flew on 2 September 1937, and was heavily damaged on 11 April 1938. The XF-2 was in a competition with the Brewster XF2A-1 and the Seversky NF-1. The Grumman design was not only faster than the other two but it also displayed better handling qualities. However, money was still tight for military aircraft and the government wanted to spread the limited amount of work between manufacturers. It appears that the Navy was ready to order a small batch of F3Fs but Brewster was awarded a contract for 54 F2A-ls, to be known as the Buffalo. The XF4F-2 had a number of deficiencies and these were corrected during the rebuild with the machine emerging as the XF4F-3. Back in the air on 12 February 1939, the XF4F-3 was regarded as a production prototype. Among numerous changes, perhaps the most important was the elimination of the R-1830-66 radial and its single-stage, single-speed supercharger capable of 1050-hp with the XR1830-76 with a two-stage, two-speed supercharger of 1200-hp that would give a calculated top speed of at least 330-mph which made the plane over 50-mph faster than the Buffalo.

The Navy was very impressed with the increase in performance and the Bureau of Aeronautics placed an initial order for 54 F4F-3s during August 1939. As the tempo of production began to speed up at the Bethpage factory, more orders were placed with Grumman for the aircraft now known as the Wildcat. License building was also assigned to Eastern Aircraft which built the FM-I and FM-2 (a modified and upgraded variant of the Wildcat) and both companies would go on to churn out 7825 Wildcats (1988 from Grumman, 5837 from Eastern) - an aircraft that fought from Pearl Harbor until the Japanese unconditional surrender.

The F4F-3 dispensed with the prototype's armament of two wing-mounted .50-cal weapons and two cowl-mounted .30-in machine guns in favor of four wing-mounted .50-cal weapons. Also self-sealing fuel tanks, armor plating, and an armor windscreen were added on the production line as developments of the air war in Europe were watched. As a point of interest, the F4F-3 did not have folding wings and it was not until the F4F-4 that Roy Grumman's design for a folding wing was incorporated - increasing by 150 percent the number of fighters that could be put aboard a carrier.

F4F-3 BuNo 12260 was one of the final batch of 100 F4F-3s that were delivered in 1943. These machines were originally ordered as long-range recon aircraft with the designation F4F-7 but that order was converted to have the planes built as F4F-3S floatplane fighters. However, that concept was dropped and the planes were all delivered as F4F3 fighter-trainers. BuNo 12260 was assigned the task of anti-submarine patrol off the east coast and performed that mission until being transferred to Naval Air Station Glenview north of Chicago to operate on the paddle-wheel training carriers Wolverine and Sable on Lake Michigan where it was used to train Naval pilots in the fine art of carrier operations.

Unfortunately, training accidents were not uncommon off these two small "platforms" (however, over 12,000 pilots qualified off these two ships) and a variety of aircraft sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan - including Dauntlesses, Avengers, Corsairs, Texans, and Wildcats. It is estimated that over 200 wound up on the bottom - a treasure trove of combat machines for the modem day restorer and/or museum. The US Navy, unlike the USAF, has a totally unreasonable policy of maintaining control over all their lost aircraft. It is obvious that the Navy can do little in recovering machines but they have exercised a firm control (which may be coming to an end) over these machines and this control has seen the demise of numerous aircraft to time and the elements. In the late 1980s, the Navy began thinking about raising some of the aircraft from the bottom of Lake Michigan for their museum. Apparently not having the resources to raise the aircraft themselves, the Navy contracted with A&T Recoveries to bring up a number of Wildcats and Dauntlesses. As pay, A&T Recoveries would receive two Wildcat airframes with free and clear title to sell (it must be noted that some of the raised machines have been restored to static condition but the remainder remain rotting in the salt-laden environment of Pensacola, Florida).