Takes a couple minutes to get airborne.

Amazing airplane that doesn't get the credit of many others but when Leroy Grumman was told to take those early WW-II lessons and build the best fighter he could to beat the A6M5 he did so in spades. Can you imagine the surprise of the Japanese if the F8F had made it to the war?

Cool....I enjoyed that

Sweet bird!! For its era, God help the man within its sights.

Real airplanes back then. Real men flying them, too.

Man, I wish! The closest I got to that was about 700 hours in the T-28B. The Trojan had less horsepower (1450 or so IIRC) but due to lighter weight was pretty close in some performance parameters but fell well short in top speed.

Those 1400+ HP saved my bacon when one day when, like an idiot, I flew up a blind canyon in Hawaii. It was close and I mean REAL CLOSE, like less than 50' close! To this day I remember the max climb angle airspeed..110 kts

Love the sound of the big radials, kinda like a Harley on steroids!

The Ace Maker was one hell of a plane. Lots of dead Japanese pilots never knew what hit them.

The Ace Maker was one hell of a plane. Lots of dead Japanese pilots never knew what hit them.

Very nice!

Awesome!!

For the Hellcat, I always thought it was a real tribute to the design, that unlike other planes that had constant new
models to adjust to combat needs and performance...

in the numbers built, the F6F stood alone as the one, that was already "good enough"

for WW 2, you have the F6F-3 and F6F-5....

Combat kill ratio: 19 to 1!

Developed when our country had their Schitt Together.... unlike currently..

Yes Sir, true that!

Back in the mid-90s I had the pleasure of working with an ex-F8F pilot... The stories he told.......

I guess its normal to smoke a little. Looked to me like there might be some oil streaks on the belly.

It's a radial engine. If it's not leaking and burning oil it's under serviced.

An aircraft whose record speaks for itself!

Very impressed with it`s manuerability,,,never seen a real one fly before. Thanks

Dat's a fact Jack!

In he mid-1960's, I worked with 2 guys at Mobil Oil in NY. During the war, one flew Grumman F-6Fs in The Pacific and the other flew North American P-51s in Europe. the (good natured) arguments were endless. I always wondered if both planes flew against each other , who'd win!

My father-in-law owned a Cessna 195 with a 300hp Jacobs engine. He'd have to roll down the pilot's side window in flight (the 195's windows manually cranked down just like a car) and wipe the oil off the windscreen occasionally)

Isn't the smoke at startup because of the engine pre oilers?

My dad served in the South Pacific on the Yorktown and on several islands.

The two planes he loved best to hear and see overhead were the Hellcat and the P-38 Lightning.

He said the Japs would turn tail and run when these planes came after them a bit later in the war. They learned that they would be sacrificing scarce assets.


That was a picture perfect landing, IMO. The pilot knew the plane.

I've read the P-51 would do well until after the first turn.

yeah, another of the old WW 2 sayings on Radials...

if it isn't leaking oil on the ground when parked, then there isn't any oil in the engine...

After our OPS brief I always did a walk around with our crew chief to make sure we had leaks under the 1830 R's ..No leaky no fly GI