Thoughts about the F7F Tigercat.

Shortround6 said:

The F4U-4 has a two stage supercharger. It's engine has 1800hp at 23,000ft (no ram) and can still pull 1800 hp at 25,500ft in level flight with ram. The F7Fs used single stage superchargers. The -1 and -2 F7Fs used R-2800-22 engines that hada Military power of 1600hp at 16,000ft (no ram). the -3 version had the R-2800-34 engine with 1700hp at 16,000ft. (no ram)

These are military ratings and do not include water injection which ALL these engines were fitted with.

The engines in the F7F-12 may be down to around 1320hp at 23,000ft. Granted there are two but there does come an altitude at which the F4U-4 does out climb the the F7F by several hundred fpm. While trying to climb straight away doesn't work well having a better rate of climb means the ability to better maintain height in a turn. Either pull a bit tighter turn while maintaining height or if both planes are pulling tight turns and both are loosing altitude the one with the "better climb rate" will loose less altitude per second it is in the turn. If the F4U-4 goes down below 20,000ft he is giving up this advantage.

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GregP said:

Hi pinsog,

If I were doing a press interview, Steve would no doubt give a long explanation. However, I work for him and his answers are usually short and to the point since he is so busy. I suppose we'll see.

He'll be at Reno until after next weekend and then back honme, hopefully with another family Nation al Championship ... again, we'll see. There are some FAST planes there again this year. Nobody is cutting up entire warbirds into racers anymore, so the contenders are well known.

I doubt if Shockwave will ever fly. It is a new-build fuselage that would have T-2 Buckeye wings and an R-3350, but it may never be completed. If this is the swan song for the races, it for sure will never be finished. I suppose only time will tell.

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Shortround6 said:

The 20mm guns and ammo boxes are mounted pretty far back in the wing, just forward of the flaps. Distance from the CG may not be quite as great as as the .50 cal guns but being behind the CG helps balance weight taken out in front of the CG.

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GregP said:

Talked with Steve Hinton about the Tigercat versus the Corsair.

He said the Tigercat accelerated faster, was faster overall, climbed much better, and hit a lot harder, but wasn't quite as agile. Later variants of the Corsair may have been a bit faster at the top end. But the Tigercat had accelerated away so fast that any encounter would be over before the Corsair would catch up. And despite any published numbers, no Corsair would climb with a Tigercat.

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