Recent content by DarrenW

Just to add to this information, there were actually TWO homogeneous plates of back armor installed on the F6F Hellcat. See attached illustration from pilot's manual below. Placement of all armor is well shown. Head armor was a separate piece of face-hardened steel plate which was in addition to...

The report only includes data pertaining to US aircraft assigned to both Navy and Marine air groups. I can look for data concerning the Commonwealth air units but I don't have it readily available at the moment. Maybe someone here can provide this data perhaps??

There is no argument that the F6F suffered more operational losses during action sorties than the F4U. If we look more closely, however, some interesting facts emerge. Looking at NACS table 1 on page 14, I found that Hellcats flew 95 percent of their total wartime action sorties from carriers...

Great point that's often over-looked.. In early 1943 the US Navy considered both the F4U and F6F to be excellent carrier-based fighters but during this period the US Marines desperately needed newer fighters in the Solomon Islands to replace their worn-out F4Fs. With Grumman ceasing production...

Beautiful builds all of them. I can fully appreciate the work that went into them, especially the camouflage. I'm currently building the old 1960s Revell 1/32 Bf 109G-6 for nostalgic reasons and I'm finding out first hand how much efford goes into getting the right 'look' for the model. Very...

Thanks for posting this excellent article. I agree with the author explanations wholeheartedly: On the other hand, YouTube Greg's analysis on the subject is completely wrong IMHO...

That's a very good point. It truly shows how aerodynamically clean a service condition P-51 really was.

Hi Bill...yeah I've seen those NACA figures for CDp and you're absolutely right that the F4U definitely has a higher number than the P-47. I was thinking because the aircraft tested was a very early birdcage version that there were improvements over time which made the F4U-1D a somewhat cleaner...

Interesting analysis. Another comparison can be made to the speed loss experienced by two other large US fighters with the R-2800, the F4U-1D and F6F-5. I would say that aerodynamically the F4U-1D was probably a tad bit cleaner than the P-47D, with the F6F-5 being somewhat worse. According to...

Ok guys I did a brief check on pages 47/48 of the P-47D Pilot's Flight Instructions dated 25 Jan 1945 (-25 model and beyond) and this is what I found: 1) with 300 gallons fuel on board and no external tanks the optimal suggested best speed at 20,000 feet is 330 mph with a maximum range of 485...

Yeah I did that after about an hour went by, when finally realizing i made the mistake. I was somewhat worried that those of you who saw it would think I was absolutely losing my mind by laughing at a straight up fact ;)

Sorry low battery I hit the wrong reaction to your earlier post. I didn't find it humorous in the least. I agree with you.

Unfortunately I don't have any information concerning whether or not the 201st or 601st made any claims that day.There may be war diaries somewhere which might help spread some light on the topic. I hope so anyway. I really don't see the circumstances surrounding the 16 April fight to be so...

I understand your reasoning here and respect your opinion but I don't exactly see the events the way you do which is fine of course. A barrier crash landing can be attributed to a multitude of reasons such as a malfunctioning tailhook or flap issues. And while these types of issues COULD have...

You made some very good points here. Given a George in good working order the F6F Hellcat was by all accounts still a bit faster in level flight and decidingly faster in the dive (especially when you weigh in landing gear malfunctions with the Japanese fighter...a point you raised earlier). This...