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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 .
Robert Wayne Duncan (20 December 1920 – 12 October 2013) was an American flying ace in the Pacific theatre of World War II.Duncan was the first person to shoot down a Mitsubishi A6M Zero while flying a Grumman F6F Hellcat. [1]
The Bearcat was influenced by the larger F6F Hellcat. In 1943, Grumman was introducing the F6F Hellcat , powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine, which provided 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW). The R-2800 was the most powerful American engine, so it would be retained for the G-58.
[4] [5] Early problems with carrier landings and logistics led to it being eclipsed as the dominant carrier-based fighter by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, powered by the same Double Wasp engine first flown on the Corsair's initial prototype in 1940. [6] The Corsair's early deployment was to land-based squadrons of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy.
The Grumman-patented Sto-Wing aftwards-folding wing folding system, pioneered on the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat, has been used since World War II on a number of Grumman-designed carrier aircraft, [4] [5] a version of which is still in use in the 21st century on the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye shipboard airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft and its C-2 ...
Rare types on display from World War II include the P-51A Mustang, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, P-47M Thunderbolt, North American B-25 Mitchell, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and Grumman F6F Hellcat. [11] Many of them were built in Southern California. [12] Aircraft collection
VF-1 F6F-3 launches from the hangar deck catapult of USS Yorktown in June 1943 VF-1 F6F-3 aboard USS Yorktown, June 1944. VF-1 operating the Grumman F6F Hellcat was embarked on the USS Yorktown (CV-10) on its shakedown cruise in the Caribbean in June 1943. VF-1 was transferred to Kaneohe Naval Air Station in August 1943. [2]
Based at nearby NAS Oceana from December, VF-9 converted to the new F6F-3 Hellcat in early 1943, among the first squadrons to receive them. McWhorter found the Hellcat a "dream to fly" and much superior to the Wildcat. [12] During this period at Norfolk McWhorter met Louise Edel, the daughter of a Navy chaplain, and they married on January 16. [13]