Was the F4F Wildcat a good fighter?

Was the F4F Wildcat a good fighter?

Bigger and better fighters—such as the Grumman F6F Hellcat—would enter the fray, but the F4F Wildcat saw service throughout the war. Its durability, along with multiple . 50-caliber machineguns and wing space for two 100-pound bombs, made it ideal for search-and-destroy missions.

How good is F4F?

F4F fliers won more Medals of Honor than any other fighter pilots in World War II. Of the eight medals, six went to Marines fighting in the Solomon Islands campaign in 1942‑1943. Navy and Marine Corps squadrons flew the Wildcat in combat for just 20 months, from December 1941 to August 1943.

How good was the F6F Hellcat?

The F6F made its combat debut in September 1943, and was best known for its role as a rugged, well-designed carrier fighter, which was able to outperform the A6M Zero and help secure air superiority over the Pacific theater. In total, 12,275 were built in just over two years….Grumman F6F Hellcat.

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F6F Hellcat
Number built 12,275

How many guns did the F4F Wildcat have?

Grumman F4F Wildcat Specifications:
F4F-3 F4F-4
FM-2 One Wright Cyclone R-1820-56 , 1,350 hp (1,006 kW) 9-cylinder, single-row radial piston, air-cooled engine. Four Browning M2, 0.50 inch (12.7 mm) 430 rpg machine guns, and two 100 lb (45 kg) bombs.

Does Grumman still make aircraft?

IN a historic move, Grumman Corporation – one of the nation’s largest aerospace contractors and the last remaining builder of fighter/bomber military aircraft in the Northeast – is shutting down its manufacturing facilities on Long Island, N.Y.

What does F4F Wildcat stand for?

Grumman Wildcat Fighter (WWII) F4F. Framework for the Future. F4F. Female For Female.

Did the F4F have folding wings?

XF4F-4. The biggest change made to the F4F-4 was the installation of folding wings. The U.S. Navy requested this feature early in 1940. It took the Grumman company until April 1941 to fit hydraulically powered folding wings to the last F4F-3 produced, turning it into the XF4F-4 prototype.

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When did Northrop merger with Grumman?

September 11, 2001
Consolidation Nation Between the Northrop Grumman merger and September 11, 2001, some $153 billion in defense and aerospace deals were inked, according to Bloomberg data.

What happened to Grumman Boats?

Grumman’s boat division was sold in 1990 to Outboard Marine Corp. and then in July, 1996, OMC produced its last Grumman-brand canoe.

What kind of aircraft is a F4F Wildcat?

Grumman F4F Wildcat. Jump to navigation Jump to search. The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940, where it was initially known as the Martlet.

Is this the best tribute ever paid to the Grumman F4F Wildcat?

Those words of top Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, part of a November 1942 conversation that was reported in fighter pilot Saburo Sakai’s autobiography, Samurai, might be the best tribute ever paid to the Grumman F4F Wildcat.

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What was the kill-to-loss ratio of the F4F Wildcat?

When the Grumman F4F Wildcat entered service in 1940, no one would have predicted that by the end of World War II it would have an air combat kill-to-loss ratio of 6.9:1. Though the Wildcat was slower than the Zero, the rugged aircraft could take a tremendous amount of damage and keep flying.

What was the purpose of the Grumman Wildcat?

The Wildcat continued to be built throughout the remainder of the war to serve on escort carriers, where larger and heavier fighters could not be used. Grumman fighter development began with the two-seat Grumman FF biplane. The FF was the first U.S. naval fighter with a retractable landing gear.