And back to Bearcats climb to time
How long did that record stand?
A day 'cos it beat it's own record the next day.
No, but a good guess. Actually, this record only stood for about 30 minutes, until Butch Davenport took off in another NATC F8F, using up about 115 feet of runway, and roared off to 10000 feet all in 97.8 seconds. Davenport's take off run was 30 feet shorter than the earlier attempt, taking advantage of a increase in headwind of about 15 knots that has come up in the meantime.
Some sources, including official USN, state that these events took place on November 20, 1946, but no, both attempts were on the 22nd. I've the log books of the pilot of first F8F.
Here's the pilot of the first, 100 second, F8F, standing in front of his plane:
And here's a group of pilots at NATC:
Left to Right: Bill Martin, Director TacTest; Jim Davidson, first USN aviator to land and take off a jet from a carrier; Pete Bolt, test pilot; Bill Leonard, Assistant Director/test pilot; Butch Davenport, test pilot. Planes in background are, left, Ryan FR-1 and, right, F8F-1. I believe the F8F is Leonard's not Davenport's as in the first picture from a couple of days ago you can see the tail of the FR-1 in the background. Photo series was taken before going off to Cleveland. Davidson and Bolt went along as extra pilots.
Rich