Description
The F6F Hellcat is a fighter aircraft produced by Grumman, a prestigious carrier fighter aircraft company,
as a successor to the F4F Wildcat,
and along with the F4U Corsair, it was the main aircraft of the US Navy in the latter half of World War II.
On June 30, 1941, a prototype order for the XF6F-1 was issued, and in
June 1942, the XF6F-3 made its first flight.
However, this aircraft lacked horsepower and was not satisfactory in terms of performance, so
the engine was immediately replaced with a powerful P&WR-2800 Double Wasp.
Delivery of mass-produced aircraft began in November 1942, and
the first F6F unit VF-9 was formed as early as January 1943, and
training began on the aircraft carrier Essex as the top batter to defeat the Zero Fighter.
By 1943, 2,545 F6F-3s had been delivered, and
252 were lent to Britain under a loan agreement.They were assigned
to the British Fleet Task Force from July 1943, and
entered combat in December, one of them. The division engaged in operations against Japan in the Indian Ocean.
The F6F-5 is equipped with the same R-2800-10W engine as the late production F6F-3, but it
is a production model with slightly redesigned engine cowling, windshield, aileron, and tail area.
The rear visibility window behind the movable windshield is also gone.
In addition, bulletproof equipment has been strengthened.
The F6F was large and heavy in proportion to its engine output, and
was by no means a masterpiece in terms of performance, but it was sturdy,
had good mobility, and was equipped with excellent bulletproof equipment, so it could withstand
bullets easily and had a low wear and tear rate. Fortunately
, the number of aircraft produced was small, the total number of aircraft produced was 12,272,
and it took Japan a lot of time to develop a successor to the Zero Fighter, so
it had a more splendid war record than its actual capabilities.
[Actual aircraft data] (F6F-5)
Crew: 1 person
Overall width: 13.06m
Overall length: 10.23m
Overall height: 4.9m
Wing area: 31m2
Engine: P&W R-2800-10W
Takeoff power: 2,100 horsepower
Cruising range: 1,750 km
Maximum speed : 594km/h (altitude 7,300m)
Armament: 12.7mm machine gun x 6 or 20mm machine gun x 2 + 12.7mm machine gun x 4, bomb 450kg x 2
