Was the Bearcat as good as the Late War Japanese fighters?

[R Leonard]

F8F Bureau Numbers were:
F8F-1 90437-90459 [23]
XF8F-1 90460-90461 [2]
F8F-1 94752-95048 [297]
XF8F-2 95049 [1]
F8F-1 95050-95329 [280]
XF8F-1 95330 [1]
F8F-1 95331-96751 (95499-96751 canceled) [168]
F8F-1 100001-102000 (all canceled) [0]
F3M-1 109273-111148 (all canceled) [0]
F8F-1 112529-114528 (all canceled) [0]
F8F-1 121463-121522 [60]
F8F-2 121523-121792 [270]
F8F-1B 122087-122152 [66]
F8F-2 122614-122708 [95]

Total 1263 procured.

As I understand it, had the war continued, the F6F's on the CVs and CVLs were to be replaced by F8Fs. The FM-2s on the CVEs were to be replaced by the displaced F6Fs which were, ultimately, to be again replaced by additional F8Fs. Note that there were a total of 5253 F8F-1s plus the 1876 F3M-1s (total 7129) in the canceled contracts; more than enough to fill both combat and training requirements for that plan.

Record short take offs were on November 22, 1946 at the Cleveland Air Races where F8F-1 pilots from TacTest set back-to-back US climb-to-time records. “Operation Pogo Stick" was conducted as a demonstration at the Cleveland Air Race, November 22, 1946. An F8F-1 piloted by Comdr. Bill Leonard set a time to climb record, from a dead stop to 10K feet in 100 seconds, including a 150 foot take off run. Unfortunately, he didn't get to keep the record very long. Lieut. Comdr. Butch Davenport came along about 30 minutes later and set the next new record of 97.8 seconds, also in an F8F-1 with a 115-foot take off run. Leonard's take off was into an estimated 30 knot head wind, by the time Davenport took off the head wind was over 40 knots.

The F8F’s used were the standard Navy aircraft, armed but without ammunition and carrying 50% fuel. The planes were modified to allow full emergency military power with the landing gear down, something the safety locks did not normally allow. A further modification was the installation of a piece of equipment, oddly enough, called a “theater” behind the pilot. This was a small instrument board, about one foot square, that had as it’s most important feature a movie camera that recorded time, altitude, and various goings on in the cockpit. National Aeronautic Association personnel calibrated this camera for the attempts at the Cleveland Air Show. The camera was actuated thusly: The pilot taxied the airplane to his starting point and flipped a switch to activate the camera. At that point, when the pilot releases his brakes, another switch is automatically thrown and the camera starts recording events. These pilots and airplanes were from TacTest where testing airplane performance was what they did. Cdr Leonard was TACTEST projects officer. Lt Cdr Davenport was the F8F project officer. The list of airplanes operating at TACTEST in the 1945-1950 period is lengthy and included German, Japanese, and British types, as well as American. It was not unusual to have this “theater” equipment installed in a TACTEST aircraft as a matter of course and it was test pilots’ job to push their mounts to the limit.

The rapid climb to altitude was the F8F's bread and butter. The plane was to have been the solution to the kamikaze problem ... rapid climb capability, firepower, speed, and more (better) maneuverability than the F6F or F4U.

I’ve heard folks claim that Leonard and Davenport pretty well trashed the engines on their planes, but that is not so. This was not a spur of the moment stunt ". . . Hey, let’s go up to Cleveland . . . I hear they’re having an Air Race today . . . Maybe we can set a record of some kind". Actually they’d been practicing back at Patuxent with the same planes used in Cleveland, doing four or five practice runs each in these same planes. After the demonstration they flew those same planes back to TACTEST.

A little competition being good for the soul, the question once arose: Which was the best performing airplane, the jet-driven FJ-1 or the time-tested Bearcat. Cdr. Peter “Sweet Pete” Aurand, of VF-51 (formerly VF-5A), was not about to concede the capabilities of his squadron’s Furies to anyone. As a result, Bearcats from VFs 113 and 53 squared off with Aurand’s FJs and conducted five tests, the results of which follow.

First test: Two FJs and two F8Fs participated in a climb test from a standing start. The F8Fs were to use water injection but, due to malfunctioning, could only do so for a few minutes after takeoff. The best of the two Bearcats beat the two best FJs to 15,000 feet by more than a minute.

Second test: A zoom climb test was conducted with the two plane types. Both stabilized speed at full power at 1,000 feet. On signal, they commenced a climb. The FJ beat the Bearcat to 10,000 feet by 13 seconds. The F8F stalled trying to catch up with the jet going on to 15,000 feet.

Third test: Two weeks later, VF-51 pitted a Fury against a Bearcat at NAS San Diego to race to 25,000 feet above El Toro, 63 miles away. The FJ-1 arrived a minute and 40 seconds before the propeller plane.

Fourth test: This one simulated catapult launching climb performance. At 500 feet in flight with gear and flaps down, a climb was started on signal. The timing was stopped accidentally when the stop clock in the F8F became inoperative. The test was inconclusive but VF-51 said it felt the jet would have won this one, too.

Fifth test: A simultaneous takeoff was made. The Bearcat gained about 5,000 feet while the Fury was still on the ground and therefore could make a gunnery run on the jet immediately, if desired. In the test, the F8F got airborne and immediately pulled up to make the first pass. On the second pass, it fell behind the FJ and in the final race to 10,000 feet the FJ won by seven seconds and further increased its lead 15 seconds in climbing to 15,000 feet.

Designations:
XF8F-1: Experimental version of F8F-1.
XF8F-1N: Experimental version of the F8F-1 converted as a night fighter.
XF8F-2: Experimental version of the F8F-2.
F8F-1:
Specifications for the F8F-1 were:
Length - 27 ft 8 in
Height - 12 ft 2 in
Span - open 35 ft 6 in; folded 23 ft 9 in
Wing area - 244 sq ft
Weights - empty 7,323 lbs; combat 9,672 lbs
Range - 217 nautical miles (combat)
Engine - Pratt & Whitney 2100 hp R-2800-34W
Ordnance – bombs - 2,000 lbs; guns - four .50 cal. fixed in wings
F8F-1B: F8F-1 with four 20 mm cannon vice .50 cal.
F8F-1N: F8F-1 converted for night fighting.
F8F-2: F8F-1 powered by Pratt & Whitney R2800-30W; 20 mm cannon vice .50 cal.
F8F-2N: F8F-2 converted for night fighting.
F8F-2P: F8F-2 equipped for photographic reconnaissance.
F8F-1D: F8F-1converted for use as a drone control plane.
F8F-2D: F8F-2 converted for use as a drone control plane.

Photos relating to TACTEST and Operation Pogostick:

First photo shows some of the staff from TACTEST. There are some interesting folks in this photo. Left to right, Cdr Bill Martin was the guru of night operations doing pioneering work in night strike operations in the Pacific during WWII flying some 400 night attack sorties. Lt Cdr Jim Davidson was the first naval aviator to land and take off the first pure carrier designed jet fighter, the FD-1, from a carrier on July 26, 1946. Lt Cdr Peter Bolt was a fighter pilot with combat experience in bth the European and Pacific Theaters. Bill Leonard was an ace who flew in VF-42, VF-3 and VF-11; after duty at TACTEST he commanded VF-171 when it became the first jet squadron to be carrier qualified. Butch Davenport was also an ace flying in VF-17. The aircraft in the background are (L) a Ryan FR-1 Fireball and (R) a Grumman F8F-1. When they first started looking into achieving a climb to time record they looked into using the Ryan, but decided that the Grumman would be better for the attempt. Davidson and Bolt were the back-up pilots for the project.

Next photo is Cdr. Bill Leonard standing in front of F8F-1 B/N 94880. This was the plane he used in his climb to time try.

Last is a side view of F8F-1 B/N 94880.

Regards,

Rich

[FLYBOYJ]

Very, very cool!!!!

[lesofprimus]

Very detailed info RL..... Good work...

[syscom3]

I wonder if there were any matchups between the Bearcats and Seafuries?

[evangilder]

Great info Rich! Here's a couple of shots of one of the survivors.

[Gnomey]

Good stuff Rich! Nice pics too Eric.

[timshatz]

Very good read Rich.

BTW, anybody got 1.8M lying around?

http://www.controller.com/listings/f...5 AD26E0D3A3E

[ozumn]

Nice stuff, i love that plane its brutal.

[lesofprimus]

Originally Posted by ozumn

i love that plane its brutal.

Thats strange, seeing how the Bearcat is an American made aircraft, not some Swedish POS......

[Hunter368]

Originally Posted by lesofprimus

Thats strange, seeing how the Bearcat is an American made aircraft, not some Swedish POS......

lol Les didn't Sweden give USA the plans to make the Bearcat? Wasn't it made from Swedish iron ore? lol

[lesofprimus]

No, but if Im not mistaken, and maybe R Leonard could shed some light, but wasnt each Bearcat sent off the production line with some big breasted Swedish bimbo rubbing her boobs on each cowling???

[R Leonard]

I can neither confirm nor deny that production process.



Rich

[davparlr]

Originally Posted by Soundbreaker Welch?

Hmm.........but this poll is for the experts like you guys. Not in my territory.

I had heard it set the record for fastest piston powered aircraft at 528 mph. On Wikipedia it says the Corsair was "marginally faster."

Could a Corsair have beat the Bearcat's record?

One thing about the Bearcat. It looks like a bootleg copy of a FW. Which it is. In some ways it takes away from it's speciality.

Which in turn, the FW looks like a bootleg copy of the Hughes H-1, which some people claim it was, along with the Zero.

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

So we Americans just took our own design back.

Pretty interesting.

[timshatz]

Or all designs evolve towards a distinctive shape which is similar. Assuming (I know that's generally where the problems start, "Assuming" anything, but for the sake of arguement...) speed is the greatest asset of piston engined fighter from the Second World War, then Radial engine fighters all head towards the same shape (with alterations based on design parameters).

It will have the largest engine possible up front to give the absolute maximum in horsepower, thinnest wings (no Hurricane Wings, closer to Laminar Flow, aka P51A wings) to reduce drag but give the lift needed, bubble canopy (see them before they see you), heavy armaments (higher the speed, less time you have to get a shot in hence the more heavy slugs in the air at one time increasing the chances of critical damage), armor and survivability equipment (inert gasses pumped into the fuel tanks, CO2 or other fire extinguishers, emergency release equipment- sometimes even a hachet!) and wide track gear to make landings easier on low time pilots (and the high time too!).

What you end up with is a fast, manuverable (high roll rate), heavily armed and relatively heavy aircraft. The Tempest, Fury, Bearcat, Ki-100 and Lagg-9 are all similar in appearance.

I think the early war aircraft all had a distictiveness that was based on differing design philosophies (for instance radial engined aircraft such as the F4F, the Skua, Zero and P36 all showed a design philosophy reflecting biases or requirements of the 30s where aircraft were more elegant than in the middle 40s-imho). By the time the end of the war had come around, radial engined aircraft were built much more functionally than their predecessors. They were, for the most part, disposable. As such, form followed function.

Same thing held true with the inlines but not to the degree of development. Seems inlines (in fighter aircraft) pretty much stopped in developement at the end of the war. Whereast the radials continued to be developed (mostly for COIN or Ground Attack) the inlines were replaced by turboprops. Probably the ability of a radial to absorb damage gave it another 20 years of design life.

Again, IMHO.