Elvis
Chief Master Sergeant
Vanir,Early Martlets are weird anyway, some were redirected French or Greek orders and others were ordered by the British, they had various engines, some Pratt Whitney and some Wright Cyclone. Some were six gun and some four gun and all of them are roughly accordant with the F4F-3 production period, I don't think any of those early ones had paper clip wings which is the real distinction of the F4F-4 (and standardised 6 gun armament).
A British Martlet in 1941 could have 4 or 6 guns or either of two engine types and no folding wings. In the European Theatre it was a superb carrier fighter either way, and a damn good fighter in general, though perhaps not quite as high performing as a short range interceptor like the Spit and 109.
Similar to the previously posted anecdote vs the Hurricane I've read an anecdote of Wildcats mock-dogfighting P-40s in which they won three for three for the island audience.
Thanks, I knew I'd heard something similar to that Wildcat-Hurricane story that was posted earlier.
Happened in the south pacific, IIRC.
Funny how the Wildcat got beat in both of those stories, yet I believe it had the beter kill ratio, over the entire war, compared to the Hurri and the P-40.
I understand that the inception of the folding wing concept came with the F4F-4, and was never available with the F4F-3 (with exception to test aircraft).
The 6 gun arrangement was actually somethng the Britsih requested with the Martlet's, after being sent an initial delivery of 4-gun planes.
For some reason, the Brits didn't feel comfortable with only 4 guns (even though they were far more powerful). In fact, I seem to remember reading something about them initially asking for 8 guns (just like the Hurri's and Spits), but I think 6 was all the Grumman could fit on the plane.
That is true about the different engines being used with different orders (I think, partly, because licensed copies of the R-1820 were in wide use with other nations at that time), but since the information I quoted listed the P&W engine, I am of the belief that the performance figures I listed are for an R-1830 powered airplane (with exception to the quoted climb rate, which I believe to be a typo).
Interesting side-note about the engines. It was the useage of the R-1820 in the Martlet's, that was the inspriation for the use of the same engine (albeit, a later and more powerful version) in the FM-2, which originated from a still-born design known as the F4F-8.
Elvis