F6F-5 Hellcat

F6F Hellcat
Role	Fighter aircraft
Variants	F6F-3 Hellcat

The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a carrier-based fighter aircraft developed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat in United States Navy service. Although the F6F bore a family resemblance to the Wildcat (not surprisingly, the original design was in fact a slightly modified version of the Wildcat, but this was changed later on), it was a completely new design powered by a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800. Some tagged it as the "Wildcat's big brother". The Hellcat and the Vought F4U Corsair were the primary USN fighters during the second half of World War II.

The Hellcat was the first US Navy fighter for which the design took into account lessons from combat with the Japanese Zero. The Hellcat proved to be the most successful aircraft in naval history, destroying 5,271 aircraft while in service with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps (5,163 in the Pacific and eight more during the invasion of Southern France, plus 52 with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during World War II). Postwar, the Hellcat aircraft was systematically phased out of front line service, but remained in service as late as 1954 as a night-fighter in composite squadrons.

Description

Northrop Grumman was working on a successor to the F4F Wildcat prior to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. While the F4F was a capable fighter, early air battles revealed the Japanese A6M Zero was more maneuverable and possessed a better climbing rate than the F4F. The F4F did have some advantages over the Zero: Wildcats were able to absorb a tremendous amount of damage compared to the Zero, and had better armament. The F4F was also much faster in a dive than the Zero, an advantage Wildcat pilots used frequently to elude attacking Zeros.

These advantages carried over into the F6F and, combined with other improvements, created a fighter that outclassed the Zero almost completely. The contract for the prototype XF6F-1 was signed on 30 June 1941. The F6F was originally to be given the Wright R-2600 Cyclone engine of 1,700 hp (1,268 kW), but based on combat experience of F4F Wildcat and Zero encounters, Grumman decided to further improve their new fighter to overcome the A6M Zero's dominance in the Pacific theater. Grumman installed the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) estimating a 25% increase in performance would result. The first Cyclone-equipped prototype (02981) flew on 26 June 1942 while the first Double Wasp-equipped aircraft, the XF6F-3 (02982) had its first flight on 30 July 1942.

Proposed at the same time as the first Hellcat prototypes, the XF6F-2 incorporated a turbo-supercharger, but performance gains were only slight and until fleet demands for improvements in speed arose, this variant, along with the two-speed supercharger-equipped XF6F-3, languished. However, later F6F-4 and F6F-5 variants did benefit from these initial development programs.

Armaments

Guns

• • either 6× 0.50 in (12.7 mm) M2HB Browning machine guns, with 400 rounds per gun, (All F6F-3, and most F6F-5)
  • or 2 × 20 mm (.79 in) cannons, with 225 rounds per gun
  • and 4 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns with 400 rounds per gun (F6F-5N only

Bombs

up to 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) full load, including:

• • Bombs or Torpedoes:(Fuselage mounted on centerline rack)
    • 1 × 2,000 lb (907 kg) bomb or
    • 1 × Mk.13-3 torpedo;
  • Underwing bombs: (F6F-5 had two additional weapons racks either side of fuselage on wing centre-section)
    • 2 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) or
    • 4 × 500 lb (227 kg)
    • 8 × 250 lb (110 kg)

Rockets

• • 6 × 5 in (127 mm)[High velocity aircraft rockets or
  • 2 × 11¾ in (298 mm) Tiny Tim unguided rockets

Ace Combat

A recent trailer for Ace Combat X2: Joint Assault shows an F6F-5 flying over Midway Islands, before being shot down by a Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker.

Most recently, scans from Eurogamer feature the Hellcat & the Japanese A6M Zero, with scans showing the Hellcat engaged in combat with Valahia fighters over Midway. This confirms that both the Zero and the Hellcat will be player-flyable.

External Links

• http://www.acecombat.jp/x2/world/machine.html

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