Best Grumman 'Cat' II

What's your favorite Cat?

  • F4F Wildcat

    Votes: 13 21.0%

  • F6F Hellcat

    Votes: 16 25.8%

  • F7F Tigercat

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • F8F Bearcat

    Votes: 15 24.2%

  • F9F Panther

    Votes: 3 4.8%

  • F9F/F-9 Cougar

    Votes: 2 3.2%

  • F11F Tiger

    Votes: 2 3.2%

  • F-14 Tomcat

    Votes: 10 16.1%
  • Total voters
    62

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Pong

Staff Sergeant
1,333
4
Sep 2, 2007
Manila, Philippines
Here's a revisit of the old Best Grumman 'Cat' plane thread. Beginning in the 1930s, Grumman made a series of planes called the "Cats". So, what's your favorite Grumman Cat?
 
As much as I like the Hellcat, I still think the F4F was what held things in check with the Japanese until the other fighters, like the Hellcat came into the fray.

I am still a big fan of the Bearcat too. That things climbs like nothing else with a prop.

When I saw the F6F, F7F, and F8F all in formation at Camarillo this year, I was surprised to see how tough a time it was for the Hellcat to keep up. It was made worse by the fact that the Hellcat was on the outside of the turns. He was pouring on the juice and the Bearcat and Tigercat were pulling away.
 
I have always thought that the F8F was what the other R-2800 engined fighters, the F6F, F4U and P-47 should have been. Light, small, high performance fighters with adequate range and ordnance capability.
 
When I saw the F6F, F7F, and F8F all in formation at Camarillo this year, I was surprised to see how tough a time it was for the Hellcat to keep up.
Click to expand...

You should see a F4F in formation with a F6F and Corsair then. That "little" radial in the old F4f really had to turn to try to keep up with the others two.
 
I am going to go with the F4F because it held the line in the early going and pretty much had a draw with one of the most innovative fighters in the war, the A6M. The USN and Marine fighter pilots of course contributed heavily with their skills and training but that tubby little fighter from 1941 until early 1943 was practically all the Navy and Marines had as a fighter and it did yeoman service. The Wildcat in the form of the FM2 served until the end of the war in both the Atlantic and Pacific.
 
The F-14 Tomcat is one of my favorite all time choices of favorite planes. I really like the Bearcat out of the "warbirds".
 
The F9F (Panther) is my favorite Grumman fighter, not necessarily 'best'. The first truly operational USN jet fighter (the FH and FJ were never deployed overseas) and first Navy combat jet (claiming a pair of Yak-9's at the beginning of the Korean War). And it was the first jet of any country to down another jet fighter in combat, and have opposing records agree that's what happened, Nov 9 1950. Both MiG-15's and F-80's were credited with the other type Nov 1 and Nov 8, but US and Soviet records respectively don't show losses in those encounters. The VF-111 F9F victory over a MiG-15 Nov 9 does show up in Soviet records, first jet recorded lost in jet-jet combat in history.

Joe
 
Yes, the F2H was in service at the same time as the F9F Panther. In those days the Navy always wanted two different fighters being developed in case one was unsuccessful.
 
kool kitty89 said:
Wasn't the F2H deployed around the same time as the F9F?
Click to expand...
The first operational deployment of jets on carriers, ie. other than operations off US coast within range of shore divert fields, was VF-111 and VF-112, F9F-2's, aboard USS Valley Forge, left US May 1 1950 for the Pacific, became first combat deployment when the Korean War broke out in late June and they flew their first combat missions July 3 1950. The first F2H's were VF-171 and 172 F2H-2's on USS Coral Sea, left US September 9 1950 for the Med. The first Korean deployment was VF-172 aboard USS Essex with first combat mission August 23 1951. So the F9F was definitely first, though not a big gap by today's standards. Jets had operated on carriers from 1946 close to shore, but the Valley Forge cruise was pioneering in integrating jets in a real air group, operating overseas and at times outside range of shore divert fields, even before the 'first' of going into combat, and eventually scoring the first jet-jet victory (besides Meteor v V1 if one wants to count that).

Joe
 
I have a book by Marion Carl, which I can't locate right now, in which he talks of commanding a mixed Marine squadron after WW2 that was operating an early McDonnell jet, the Demon(?) and Corsairs. He said the performance of the jet was so anemic and somewhat dangerous that they used the Corsairs almost to the exclusion of the jets. In another of my books, "Eighty Knots to Mach Two," the author says the early McDonnell jets deserved their names, Demon, Banshee, etc. as they always seemed to be haunted because they would emit weird ghostly sounds that the mechanics could never locate and eliminate. He liked the F2H very much but had more time in the F9F.
 
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