Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Single-seat carrier-borne fighter

Power Plant:

(F6F-6)

One 1,492 kw (2,000 hp) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-10 Double Wasp eighteen-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engine with two-stage two-speed supercharger

Specifications:

Armament:

Six 12.7 mm (0.50 in) Colt-Browning machine guns in wings

History:

One of the most successful fighter aircraft of World War II, the Grumman Hellcat was a development of the Grumman Wildcat fitted with a Double Wasp engine providing 1,492 kw (2,000 hp), the prototype, the XF6F-1, flying at Bethpage on Long Island, New York on 26 June 1942; the second prototype, the XF6F-3, flying six weeks later on 30 July 1942.

To produce the new design a new facility was built on Long Island and the first Hellcats were delivered to United States Navy (USN) Squadron VF-9 on 16 January 1943. During the following months this unit took up assignment on board the aircraft carrier ‘USS Essex’. By the end of 1943 the Hellcat was almost exclusively the fighter attached to all fast and light US Navy aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

The type was also used as a fighter bomber, one operation occurring on 5 November 1943 when F6F-3s from the ‘USS Princeton’ and ‘USS Saratoga’ provided combat air patrols for a bomber force attacking Rabaul in New Britain, PNG, which was then in Japanese hands. The first real test of the type occurred on 4 December that year when 91 F6F-3s supported a strike on shipping at Kwajalein and airfields on Roi Island, when 50 Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sens were encountered and 28 were destroyed for the loss of three Hellcats.

Production of the F6F-3 amounted to 4,403 aircraft. One variant was the F6F-3P for high-altitude photo reconnaissance. Others were fitted out for night fighting. Production continued throughout the war and, when it reached its conclusion in November 1945, some 12,275 had been completed, the last model being the XF6F-6.

Development led to the F6F-5, which had aerodynamic improvements, a re-designed engine cowling, new ailerons and strengthened tail surfaces. The engine remained the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 but was the R-2800-10W variant with a water injection system which provided an additional 10 per cent power for limited periods. The first F6F-5 flew on 4 April 1944. Some later aircraft had two machine guns replaced by 20 mm cannon and were able to carry two 454 kg (1,000 lb) bombs or six 12.7 cm (5 in) rocket projectiles. The Hellcat was credited with 4,947 of the 6,477 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air by US Navy pilots.

Great Britain received the Hellcat under Lend-Lease arrangements, a total of 252 F5F-3s being delivered and serving with Fleet Air Arm (FAA) Squadrons under the designation Hellcat F Mk I. Hellcats on board British aircraft carriers ‘HMS Victorious’, ‘HMS Furious’, ‘HMS Searcher’, ‘HMS Pursuer’ and ‘HMS Fencer’ were involved in providing cover for aircraft attacking the German battleship ‘Tirpitz’ in Norway in March 1943. Most operational use of British Hellcats occurred in the Far East Theatre. Later the Royal Navy received 930 F6F-5s and 80 F6F-5N night fighters and these were designated F Mk II and NF Mk II. British Hellcats participated in major actions against Japanese targets, particularly the attacks on oil refineries in Sumatra in January 1945.

Late in World War II a number of Royal Navy units continued for a period to operate the Hellcat in this region, being based at naval stations including ‘HMS Nabberly’ at Bankstown, NSW, and ‘HMS Nabthorpe’ at Schofields, NSW. These units included Nos 706, 885, 1840 and 1845 Squadrons, Royal Navy. In addition No 723 Squadron, which was formed in the United Kingdom with Miles Martinet target towing aircraft, operated the Martinet from Schofields and Nowra and also, after World War II, had a small number of Hellcats and Corsairs on strength. Most were reported to have been returned to the United States of America under the terms of Lend-Lease.

However, it would appear many, if not all, Royal Navy Grumman Hellcats, Chance Vought Corsairs and Grumman Avengers were off-loaded from their carriers in Sydney, NSW and taken to Bankstown, where they were stored in the open. Some of these were broken up at the aerodrome, but many others were taken to the docks in Sydney, placed on board ships and taken to sea where they were dumped over the side, or fired pilotless off the catapults. Occasionally parts of these have been caught in fishing nets of fishing trawlers.

On Thursday, 17 January 1946, the ‘Daily Telegraph’ newspaper in Sydney announced 720 Navy planes were to be scrapped and dumped off the coast. It stated “a further 300 carrier planes of the British Pacific Fleet will be dumped into the sea off Sydney Heads in the next 10 weeks”. Later “the British Navy will dump another 420 planes, including wrecks…Some of the planes only recently uncrated and assembled, have never been flown in Australia…included Lend-Lease aircraft and involve Avengers, Barracudas, Hellcats and Corsairs…the planes are mostly single seater types which could not be put to civilian use, were obsolescent and some had no salvage value”.

The Hellcat continued in service with the US Navy and US Marine Corps after the war, a number being converted to target drones. The type also saw service in the ground-attack role in French Indo-China from 1950 when Grumman Hellcats were supplied as part of American support for France in its battle with Viet Minh forces. Others were supplied as part of the United States Mutual Air Program to the air forces of Argentina and Uruguay where they served up to 1961.

A number of examples have survived and have been privately operated by warbird enthusiasts in Europe and the United States. A number have also survived in museums.