F6F Hellcat - History of Grumman's Naval Fighter of WW2 (2024)

By Stephen Sherman, Apr. 2002. Updated January 23, 2012.

The highly successful follow-on to theWildcat. Built specifically to counter the Japanese Zero, the Hellcatfilled the bill, and earned the nickname "ace maker." Its docilehandling characteristics, especially important for a carrier-basedplane to be used by a large number of reasonably well-trained pilots,made it the Navy's first choice fighter to deploy with the Essex-classcarriers.

In the critical years 1943 and 1944, the Hellcat ruled theskies of the Western Pacific.

EugeneValencia,one of the Navy's top aces, quipped. "I love this airplane so much,that if it could cook, I'd marry it."

Development

Although the F6F had been on the drawing boards at Grumman, even beforePearl Harbor, the advent of the war gave great impetus to thedevelopment of the replacement for the Wildcat. From the start it was amuch bigger airplane. Leroy Grumman, and his two top engineers, LeonSwirbul and Bill Schwendler, laid out a plane with higher performance,more fuel & ammunition, and huge wings. The wings extended over 334square feet; the average was less than 250 sq. ft.. The wings foldedback and pivoted ingeniously, so that they folded up next to andalongside the fuselage.

The first prototype, the XF6F-1, was under development whenthe war started. Based on combat experience against the Zero and theintact A6M captured in the Aleutians, it was clear that speed andbetter climb would be needed from the Hellcat. Test pilot Robert L.Hall first flew the XF6F-1 in late June, 1942. Powered by aWright Cyclone R-2600-16 engine (1,600 horsepower), the aircraft didn'thave the needed performance. Grumman proposed the Pratt & Whitney2800 Double Wasp (2,000 horsepower). Equipped with the P&W 2800, theoriginal prototype airframe became the XF6F-3. A month later,Bob Hall flew the new configuration. Despite a crash of the XF6F-3in August, the Navy placed an order.

Grumman had to build a new facility, Plant Number 3, to produce theHellcat. Obtaining the structural steel for the buildings was achallenge, met in part by the purchase of scrap from the Second AvenueEl. Even before Plant Number 3 was finished, Hellcats began rolling offthe production lines. Another Grumman test pilot, Selden "Connie"Converse took up a production F6F-3 for the first time onOctober 3, 1942. Grumman's Hellcat output picked up quickly: 12 planesin the last quarter of 1942, 128 in the first quarter of 1943, and then130 in the month of April, 1943. Eventually they would be churning out500 per month. The company built over 12,000 in three years.

During "The War," Grumman was an outstanding example of Americanproductivity, employing 20,000 workers, few of whom had ever worked inthe aircraft industry before; many of them were women. Bethpage was ahappy place; there were no strikes, work stoppages, nor unions. Grummantook care of its employees with daycare centers for working mothers,social events for all, Christmas turkeys, and the famous "Green CarService" to help employees with dead batteries and other minorproblems.

F6F Performance

Especially with the delays in the F4U program, the US Navy needed asuperior carrier-based fighter in 1942-43. The Hellcat filled the bill.On average, it flew 55 MPH faster than the Zero; at about 20,000 feetit was 70 MPH faster. At altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet, it had acomparable rate of climb. At all altitudes, due to its heavier weightand greater power, it could out-dive the A6M. (This was generally trueof American fighters; in a tough spot, the pilots could nose over,firewall the throttle, and zoom down.)

The 'dash Five' closely resembled the 'dash Three.' It had someextra armor, stronger main gear legs, spring tabs on the ailerons (forbetter maneuverability), and most of them had water-injection engines(the R-2800-10W). Both versions had 250 gallons capacity in internaltanks and a 150 gallon belly drop-tank.

Its armament, power, and range gave the Hellcat great versatility.The basic weaponry consisted of six wing-mounted .50 caliber machineguns, each with 400 rounds of ammunition. Many, including all F6F-5Nand F6F-5P variants substituted a 20mm cannon with 200 roundsfor the innermost machine gun in each wing. The Hellcat could carry aup two 1,000 pound bombs. Its most destructive weapons were six 5-inchHVAR's (High Velocity Aircraft Rockets), which the author BarrettTillman described as "equal to a destroyer's broadside."

This variety of weapons and equipment permitted the Hellcat to carryout a broad range of missions: fighter versus fighter combat, strikeplane escort, combat air patrol, long range search, ground support overinvasion beaches, night fighting (see F6F-5N), and photo recon(see F6F-5P).

Operations - 1943

Fighting Squadron Nine (VF-9) took delivery of the first Hellcats inJanuary, 1943. As they were flying from the Long Island factory totheir Norfolk base, one crashed near Cape May, New Jersey. VF-6,commanded by ButchO'Hare, also received early deliveries of the F6F.

The Hellcat's first combat mission occurred on August 31, 1943, in astrike against Marcus Island, including Cdr. Charles Crommelin's VF-5,Lt. Cdr. Phil Torrey's VF-9, and a detachment of O'Hare's VF-6. Theearly-morning raiders destroyed eight twin-engine bombers on theground; while losing two Hellcats to anti-aircraft fire and one toengine trouble. The next day, over Howland and Bakers Islands, Lt.(jg)Dick Loesch and Ens. A.W. Nyquist scored the Hellcat's first aerialvictory when they teamed up to shoot down a Kawanishi H8K "Emily"flying boat.

Large-scale carrier operations began in October, with a attack onWake. When four carriers struck Wake Island on October 5-6, theHellcats saw their first significant aerial combat. Half an hour beforedawn on the 5th, each of the four carriers launched three fighterdivisions, 47 Hellcats in all. When they were still 50 miles out fromWake, the Japanese radar detected them, and 27 Zeros intercepted. Inthe ensuing dogfight, Fighting Nine's skipper, Phil Torrey, shot downone Zero, then evaded two more by dodging in and out of clouds. Lt.Hadden, while watching a shared kill fall into the ocean, was jumped bytwo Zeros, and was lucky enough to make it back to Essex withmost of his engine oil emptied out through several 20mm holes. Lt. (jg)Hamilton McWhorterdove into a gaggle of Zeros, when one serendipitously appeared in hisgunsight. He fired a short burst and exploded the Zero - his firstaerial victory.

The raid showed that the new Hellcats could more than hold its ownagainst the Zeros. They destroyed 22 of 34 aircraft at Wake, and 12American planes were lost - 6 to the Zeros and 6 to AA gunfire.

In early November, the U.S. forces attacked the large Japanese baseat Rabaul, and again the Hellcats overmatched the Zeros.

Night Fighters

The Navy saw the need for night fighters and started the Project Affirmprogram in early 1942, originally with Corsairs equipped with primitiveAI (Air Interception) radar sets built by MIT engineers. In 1943, theHellcat emerged as the preferred night fighter because of its easierlanding characteristics and greater stability as a gun platform. The F6F-3E,converted in the field at MCAS Quonset Point, was the first Hellcatnight fighter, using the AI radar, red co*ckpit lighting (to preservethe pilot's night vision), and without an easily scratched Plexiglasswindscreen fairing. Eighteen F6F-3E's were built. (On November26, 1943, ButchO'Hare, flying an unmodified F6F-3 on a night mission with a TBFAvenger, disappeared over the Gilberts. One of the best books I haveread about the Pacific War, Crossing the Line, by Alvin Kernan- who was the gunner on the Avenger that night - deals with this eventin detail.)

Next came the F6F-3N, 205 of these built by the Grummanfactory. The F6F-3N employed an improved radar, the APS-6.Installed in a bulbous pod on the starboard wing, the APS-6 was simpleto operate (only six knobs), had a range of five miles, and weighed 250pounds. It featured a double-dot system that displayed a shadow blip tothe right of the true blip; this secondary blip showed the target'saltitude relative to the F6F. The -3E's and -3N's deployed to thecarriers in the Pacific in early 1944, but were difficult to integrateinto carrier operations, as they essentially would have requiredround-the-clock duty by launch and recovery crews. Nonetheless, threeHellcat-equipped night squadrons (VF(N)-76, VF(N)-77, and VF(N)-78)served in the Pacific in 1944.

The F6F-5N was the definitive night-fighting version of theHellcat, over 1500 of these built by Grumman.

Post War Service

Hellcats flew with the French Aeronavale in the Indochina warof the early 1950's.

Surviving Hellcats

As late as 1980, sixteen Hellcats survived (including some in privatehands). More recently, there are at least ten Hellcats at the followingmuseums:

Recommended Reading (available from Amazon.com): Hellcat Aces of World War 2. My copy is well-worn, from reading the experiences of many of the following aces, and admiring the beautifully precise color profile of the airplanes.

Top Hellcat Aces

F6F Variants