Грумман F6F Hellcat: Американский истребитель Второй мировой войны.

United States Navy fighter airplane

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. In gaining that role, it prevailed over its faster competitor, the Vought F4U Corsair, which initially had problems with visibility and carrier landings. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney R 2800 Double Wasp, the same powerplant used for both the Corsair and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Republic P 47 Thunderbolt fighters, the F6F was an entirely new design, but it still resembled the Wildcat in many ways. Some military observers tagged the Hellcat as the "Wildcat's big brother". The F6F made its combat debut in September 1943. It subsequently established itself 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. Hellcats were credited with destroying a total of 5,223 enemy aircraft while in service with the U. S. Navy, U. S. Marine Corps, and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA). This was more than any other Allied naval aircraft. After the war, Hellcats were phased out of front line service in the US, but radar equipped F6F 5Ns remained in service as late as 1954 as night fighters.

Grumman had been working on a successor to the F4F Wildcat since 1938, and the contract for the prototype XF6F 1 was signed on 30 June 1941. The aircraft was originally designed to use the Wright R 2600 Twin Cyclone two row, 14 cylinder radial engine of (the same engine used with Grumman's then new torpedo bomber under development), driving a three bladed Curtiss Electric propeller. Instead of the Wildcat's narrow track, hand cranked, main landing gear retracting into the fuselage inherited from the F3F ( a design from the 1930s Grumman FF 1 fighter biplane), the Hellcat had wide set, hydraulically actuated landing gear struts that rotated through 90° while retracting backwards into the wings, but with full wheel doors fitted to the struts that covered the entire strut and the upper half of the main wheel when retracted, and twisted with the main gear struts through 90° during retraction. Throughout early 1942, Leroy Grumman, along with his chief designers Jake Swirbul and Bill Schwendler, worked closely with the U. S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) and experienced F4F pilots, to develop the new fighter in such a way that it could counter the Zero's strengths and help gain air dominance in the Pacific Theater of Operations. On 22 April 1942, Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare toured the Grumman Aircraft company and spoke with Grumman engineers, analyzing the performance of the F4F Wildcat against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in aerial combat. BuAer's Lt Cdr A. M. Jackson directed Grumman's designers to mount the cockpit higher in the fuselage. In addition, the forward fuselage sloped down slightly to the engine cowling, giving the Hellcat's pilot good visibility.

Based on combat accounts of encounters between the F4F Wildcat and A6M Zero, on 26 April 1942, BuAer directed Grumman to install the more powerful, 18 cylinder Pratt & Whitney R 2800 Double Wasp radial engine – which was already in use with Chance Vought's Corsair since 1940 – in the second XF6F 1 prototype. Grumman complied by redesigning and strengthening the F6F airframe to incorporate the R 2800 10, driving a three bladed Hamilton Standard propeller. With this combination, Grumman estimated the XF6F 3s performance would increase by 25% over that of the XF6F 1.

The F6F series was designed to take damage and get the pilot safely back to base. A bullet resistant windshield was used and a total of of cockpit armor was fitted, along with armor around the oil tank and oil cooler. A self sealing fuel tank was fitted in the fuselage. Two night fighter subvariants of the F6F 3 were developed; the 18 F6F 3Es were converted from standard 3s and featured the AN/APS 4 10 GHz frequency radar in a pod mounted on a rack beneath the right wing, with a small radar scope fitted in the middle of the main instrument panel and radar operating controls installed on the port side of the cockpit. The later F6F 3N, first flown in July 1943, was fitted with the AN/APS 6 radar in the fuselage, with the antenna dish in a bulbous fairing mounted on the leading edge of the outer right wing as a development of the AN/APS 4; about 200 F6F 3Ns were built. Hellcat night fighters claimed their first victories in November 1943. In total, 4,402 F6F 3s were built through until April 1944, when production was changed to the F6F 5. After the first few F6F 5s were built, the small windows behind the main canopy were deleted. The F6F 5N night fighter variant was fitted with an AN/APS 6 radar in a fairing on the outer starboard wing. A few standard F6F 5s were also fitted with camera equipment for reconnaissance duties as the F6F 5P. While all F6F 5s were capable of carrying an armament mix of one 20 mm (.79 in) M2 cannon in each of the inboard gun bays (220 rounds per gun), along with two pairs of .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns (each with 400 rounds per gun), this configuration was only used on later F6F 5N night fighters. The F6F 5 was the most common F6F variant, with 7,870 being built. Another experimental prototype was the XF6F 2 (66244), an F6F 3 converted to use a Wright R 2600 15, fitted with a Birman manufactured mixed flow turbocharger, which was later replaced by a Pratt & Whitney R 2800 21, also fitted with a Birman turbocharger. The turbochargers proved to be unreliable on both engines, while performance improvements were marginal. As with the XF6F 4, 66244 was soon converted back to a standard F6F 3. Two XF6F 6s (70188 and 70913) were converted from F6F 5s and used the 18 cylinder Pratt and Whitney R 2800 18W two stage supercharged radial engine with water injection and driving a Hamilton Standard four bladed propeller. The XF6F 6s were the fastest version of the Hellcat series with a top speed of , but the war ended before this variant could be mass produced. The last Hellcat rolled out in November 1945, the total production being 12,275, of which 11,000 had been built in just two years. This high production rate was credited to the sound original design, which required little modification once production was under way.

The U. S. Navy much preferred the more docile flight qualities of the F6F compared with the Vought F4U Corsair, despite the superior speed of the Corsair. This preference was especially noted during carrier landings, a critical success requirement for the Navy. The Corsair was thus released by the Navy to the Marine Corps, which without the need to worry about carrier landings, used the Corsair to devastating effect in land based sorties. The Hellcat remained the standard USN carrier borne fighter until the F4U series was finally cleared for U. S. carrier operations in late 1944 (the carrier landing issues had by now been tackled largely due to use of Corsair by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, which started in 1943). In addition to its good flight qualities, the Hellcat was easy to maintain and had an airframe tough enough to withstand the rigors of routine carrier operations. Like the Wildcat, the Hellcat was designed for ease of manufacture and ability to withstand significant damage. The Hellcat first saw action against the Japanese on 1 September 1943, when fighters off Independence shot down a Kawanishi H8K "Emily" flying boat. Soon after, on 23 and 24 November, Hellcats engaged Japanese aircraft over Tarawa, shooting down a claimed 30 Mitsubishi Zeros for the loss of one F6F. Hellcats were the major U. S. Navy fighter type involved in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where so many Japanese aircraft were shot down that Navy aircrews nicknamed the battle the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". The F6F accounted for 75% of all aerial victories recorded by the U. S. Navy in the Pacific. Radar equipped Hellcat night fighter squadrons appeared in early 1944. A formidable opponent for the Hellcat was the Kawanishi N1K, but it was produced too late and in insufficient numbers to affect the outcome of the war.

U. S. Navy and Marine F6F pilots flew 66,530 combat sorties and claimed 5,163 kills (56% of all U. S. Navy/Marine air victories of the war) at a recorded cost of 270 Hellcats in aerial combat (an overall kill to loss ratio of 19:1 based on claimed kills). Claimed victories were often highly exaggerated during the war. Even so, the aircraft performed well against the best Japanese opponents with a claimed 13:1 kill ratio against the A6M Zero, 9.5:1 against the Nakajima Ki 84, and 3.7:1 against the Mitsubishi J2M during the last year of the war. The F6F became the prime ace maker aircraft in the American inventory, with 305 Hellcat aces. The U. S. successes were not just attributed to superior aircraft; from 1942 onwards, they faced increasingly inexperienced Japanese aviators and had the advantage of increasing numerical superiority. In the ground attack role, Hellcats dropped 6,503 tons (5,899 tonnes) of bombs. During the course of World War II, 2,462 F6F Hellcats were lost to all causes – 270 in aerial combat, 553 to antiaircraft ground and shipboard fire, and 341 due to operational causes. Of the total figure, 1,298 were destroyed in training and ferry operations, normally outside of the combat zones. Hamilton McWhorter III, a Navy aviator and a flying ace of World War II, was credited with shooting down 12 Japanese aircraft. He was the first U. S. Navy aviator to become an ace while flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat and the first Navy carrier pilot to achieve double ace status. Arthur Van Haren, Jr., a Navy combat Hellcat ace of WWII from Arizona, was credited with shooting down 9 Japanese planes. He was awarded a DFC, and a Gold Star in lieu of a second DFC. In 2012, Van Haren, Jr. was inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame.

The British Fleet Air Arm (FAA) received 1,263 F6Fs under the Lend Lease Act; initially, it was known as the Grumman Gannet Mark I. The name Hellcat replaced it in early 1943 for the sake of simplicity, the Royal Navy at that time adopting the use of the existing American naval names for all the U. S. made aircraft supplied to it, with the F6F 3 being designated Hellcat F Mk. I, the F6F 5, the Hellcat F Mk. II and the F6F 5N, the Hellcat NF Mk. II. They saw action off Norway, in the Mediterranean, and in the Far East. Several were fitted with photographic reconnaissance equipment similar to the F6F 5P, receiving the designation Hellcat FR Mk. II. The Pacific War being primarily a naval war, the FAA Hellcats primarily faced land based aircraft in the European and Mediterranean theaters, so experienced far fewer opportunities for air to air combat than their USN/Marines counterparts; nevertheless, they claimed a total of 52 enemy aircraft kills during 18 aerial combats from May 1944 to July 1945. 1844 Naval Air Squadron, on board of the British Pacific Fleet was the highest scoring unit, with 32.5 kills. FAA Hellcats, as with other Lend Lease aircraft, were rapidly replaced by British aircraft after the end of the war, with only two of the 12 squadrons equipped with the Hellcat at VJ Day still retaining Hellcats by the end of 1945. These two squadrons were disbanded in 1946.

After the war, the Hellcat was succeeded by the F8F Bearcat, which was smaller, more powerful (powered by uprated Double Wasp radials) and more maneuverable, but entered service too late to see combat in World War II. The Hellcat was used for second line USN duties, including training and Naval Reserve squadrons, and a handful were converted to target drones. The F6F 5 was the first aircraft used by the U. S. Navy's Blue Angels official flight demonstration team at its formation in 1946. The French Navy (Aéronavale) was equipped with F6F 5 Hellcats and used them in combat in Indochina. These were painted in Gloss Sea Blue, similar to post World War II US Navy aircraft until about 1955, but had a modified French roundel with an image of an anchor. The French Air Force also used the Hellcat in Indochina from 1950 to 1952. The plane equipped four squadrons (including the Normandie Niemen squadron of WWII fame) before these units transitioned to the F8F Bearcat. The Uruguayan Navy also used them until the early 1960s.

A relatively large number of Grumman F6Fs survive to this day, either in museums or in flyable condition. In order of Bu. No. they are: