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The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II.Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy's dominant fighter in the second half of the Pacific War.
At the time, the U.S. Navy also had the Grumman F6F Hellcat, which did not have the performance of the F4U, but was a better deck landing aircraft. The Corsair was declared "ready for combat" at the end of 1942, though qualified to operate only from land bases until the last of the carrier qualification issues were worked out. [38]
Grumman was not happy with the performance, which led to the 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine replacing the R-2600 on F6F production models. [7] R-2600-15 - 1,800 hp (1,342 kW)- Planned to power the XB-33A, a prototype model of the B-33 Super Marauder (itself a high-altitude version of the B-26 Marauder). The project was cancelled, and ...
The R-2800 powered several types of fighters and medium bombers during the war, including the US Navy's Vought F4U Corsair, with the XF4U-1 first prototype Corsair becoming the first airframe to fly (as originally designed) with the Double Wasp [7] in its XR-2800-4 prototype version on May 29, 1940, [8] and the first single-engine American ...
McCampbell entered combat on May 14 [2] and flew at least four Grumman F6F Hellcats while aboard the Essex: an F6F-3 named Monsoon Maiden (damaged by AA, removed from service on 20 May 1944), an F6F-3 named The Minsi (10 + 1 ⁄ 2 kills), an F6F-5 named Minsi II, and an F6F-5 named Minsi III (Bureau Number 70143), in which he scored the last 23 ...
For 2015, Chrysler introduced an all-new high performance supercharged variant of the Hemi engine, called the Hellcat (named after the Grumman F6F Hellcat). [25] It features the same 4.09 in (103.9 mm) bore as the 6.4 L Hemi and the same 3.578 in (90.9 mm) stroke as the 5.7 L, giving it a total displacement of 6,166 cc (6.2 L; 376.3 cu in). [ 25 ]
Grumman's Wildcat production ceased in early 1943 to make way for the newer F6F Hellcat, but General Motors continued producing Wildcats for both U.S. Navy and Fleet Air Arm use. Late in the war, the Wildcat was obsolescent as a front line fighter compared to the faster (380 mph/610 km/h) F6F Hellcat or much faster (446 mph/718 km/h) F4U Corsair.
VFA-32 was established as Bombing Fighting Three (VBF-3) on 1 February 1945, flying the F6F Hellcat, when it was split off from VF-3, the famed Felix squadron. Fritz Wolf , a former member of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) or Flying Tigers , was assigned as the first VBF-3 commanding officer. [ 1 ]