Cannon armed Hellcats

[ONE_HELLCAT]

I know there were a few of them, and my friend's looking for some pictures of them. If anyone has any pictures, that would be much appreciated.

[Wurger]

The kind of a Hellcat armament was tested with F6F-3 late version (an other source says F6F-5).These 20mm cannons didn't become a standard equippent but many of F6F-5N and E night fighters were armed with them.Actually these Helcats were equipped with the 20mm cannons and .50 calibre machine guns combination for which the inboard .50 caliber MGs had been replaced by one cannon for each wing.Besides XF6F-1 prototype was a test bed for the XF6F-4 and was armed with four 20mm cannons instead of these six standard .50 calibre MGs and was never accepted for production.


The pic source -Detail & Scale, Squadron/Signal Publication no.49 for Hellcat and some unknown.

[109ROAMING]

Nice shots mate!

news to me the hellcat had 20mm's

[Thorlifter]

Question.........why the longer barrel for the cannon? Is it needed to get that big shell spinning?

[renrich]

With a slow burning powder, perhaps like Hodgsdon 4831 a barrel is needed that is long enough to allow complete expansion of the burning powder. The installation may have required that that much of the barrel needed to protrude so the maximun MV was achieved.

[mudpuppy]

This is news for me too, that any of the Hellcats were ever fitted with 20mm cannons. Does anyone have any accounts of the night fighters, that Wurger mentions above, using the 20 mm cannons and their effectiveness?
As for the barrel length, I just assumed that was due to the larger breech and loading mechanisms in the wing that required the barrel to protrude from the leading edge. Is it both?

[Glider]

My understanding was that very few of the nightfighters were fitted with 20mm, those that were tended to be called specials. Certainly the Hellcat Nightfighters used by the RN stayed with 6 x HMG.

The Hispano 404 cannon was a much bigger weapon than the 0.50 M2 used by the USN being roughly twice the length.

[ONE_HELLCAT]

Thanks for the pictures. Is the first one a night fighter like the rest?

[Thorlifter]

I wouldn't think so One Hellcat as it still has the lighter colored paint on it.

[Wurger]

Thanks for the pictures. Is the first one a night fighter like the rest?

You'r welcome mate.
No, the Hellcat in the first pic was a F6F-3 equipped with cannons for tests.
As you can see the bird was painted with three-colour camo scheme.

[Micdrow]

Close up detail from the book hellcat squadron signal book 26.

Will leave this link here for a day or two and then move to weapons thread as a great resource.

[Wurger]

A good idea Paul.

[Micdrow]

A good idea Paul.

Thanks Wojtek!!!

[Thorlifter]

Good idea Micdrow!