Flying the Grumman F6F Fighter: Meet the Hellcat (1943)
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- čas přidán 8. 04. 2012
- They called the F6F fighter "The Hellcat." That pretty much says it all! Watch the film used to train F6F during World War 2. The Grumman Hellcat was a true workhorse Navy & Marine fighter/bomber during World War 2. Faster and more durable than a Zero and produced in great numbers, it was relatively easy to fly from a carrier with good stall characteristics. The Hellcat was the US Navy's number one weapon in securing air superiority over the Pacific
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My dad had 3. First was hit by ground fire but made it back to the Essex to badly damaged to be repaired and was pushed overboard. 2nd also hit by ground fire. Had to ditch. 3rd he finished the war with. US Navy 1941-1946 . 7 confirmed kills.
666MikeRochip has
@typo pit - That would probably explain why there was no German 'ace in a day'.
@@otterspocket2826
Hans-Joachim Marseille had 17 kills in a day on 3 sorties on Sept 1, 1942
@@karstenerdinger2167There is considerable doubt about that now. Virtually the only reference for this claim is Tolliver and Constable. Pretty much every other reference sources from them. The RAF records don’t support that many losses for that day.
My father was a navel fighter pilot south pacific WW2. He flew the hellcat. Said everything they taught you, throw it out the window. The plane would do much more. It was his favorite plane. His last squadron was VF93
My dad too.
Here's a funny Hellcat story.
Dad started me building model planes when I was 5-6. Most were 1:48 scale WW2 fighters but my first Hellcat was 1:72 scale. Naturally, I assumed that the Hellcat was much smaller than a Spit or a P-51. Well, the first time I saw a real Hellcat, I was shocked. My 7-8 year old mind just couldn't believe that the tiny model I had built was actually the same plane as the huge monster in front of me. It took a good deal to convince me that the Hellcat wasn't a model built at a 2:1 scale or that the tiny P-51 and Spitfires were sub scale models.
Cheers!
Haha that IS funny! Good story.
Thanks for the story! This is why its easy to love the F6F Hellcat.
The Hero of the Pacific, the Helpcat! :D
An incredibly well thought out design, safe, reliable, stable and very forgiving. The landing/stall speeds are comparable to a Cessna 172, just an amazing job by Grumman :)
NOTHING like the sound of a Hellcat engine! Want to go se one at an air show again!
So if you don't have an extra shotgun shell, if you are forced to land on some desert island you'll never get off the ground again
@@markrobinson1135Not a problem unique to the Hellcat.
Cool video, experiencing the operational practices of this dream machine. Now all I need is my own Hellcat to fly!
That was absolutely awesome to watch, thank you for uploading this.
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If I'd have to pick only one plane to go into fight with, that would be the Hellcat for sure! Not exceptionally fast, doesn't do crazy aerobatics, but it is hell of a warmachine with very well balanced charactreistics and strong armament.
Amazing how docile the stalls are!
Since I found this video, I can't stop watching the stalls
I´ve bought several of your dvd´s in the past and they are indeed awesome.
My dad was on the Wake Island during WWII. My dad was a fighter pilot who flew a Hellcat. He did earn the Distinguished Flying Cross. Dad was hit, landed on a different carrier, and was waved off until the blood pouring from his face was noticed. Whew!
Truth is stranger than fiction. Props to your Dad! Amazing times.👍
That folding wing mechanism was brilliant. Stack Hellcats tree top high on the carriers because of that folding wing.
My grandmother built Hellcats during WW2.
Nice video , thanks
Dad was a crew chief over 5 F6F's on the Kalinin Bay Escort Carrier . One day on land he was checking the mags and the plane jumped the chocks , took off down the runway. He almost had to fly it. lol
I love these videos !
I can't imagine trying to remember all those adjustments needed while in combat.
They'd be drilled into you until you didn't have to remember them; they'd be automatic and second nature.
yea they trained and trained and trained. These dudes were MEN too, not todays 3D printer dudes.
Had no idea it took this much to get the Hell Cat off the ground!!
Hellcat, corsair, thunderbolt had the same engine and they had body strength that could take alot of fire.. all were bad ass planes .hellcats were responable for 75% of enemy aircraft destroyed in the air in the pacific theatre hellcats were the least modified fighter plane of the war //Excellent Plane *************
james marshall Sort of . The P-47 had a turbosupercharger and a mechanical super charger.
The Hellcat and Corsair only had mechanical superchargers.
I think all 3 had water and methanol injection for War Emergency Power.
yah i read that also! thunder bolt had some cool stuff on the engine the plane had one hell of a maximum payload
crosstimbers2 the thunderbolt was the heaviest fighter plane ever built ..with a piston engine
james marshall I think you have to qualify that with single engine.
Technically the P-61 was a night fighter.
crosstimbers2 yah i knew uuu were gonna mention somthin about that ..Thats right single engine baddass mofo it is .couldnt shoot it down it was built to stay in the air..Now. the hellcats protected my dad in the south P he was on a munition ship..
What a beefy airplane!
Needed to be beefy to fit more in the ship, the beef carrier.
nice video!
Great film
Pretty nice!
apparently the guys that flew this plane felt like it was an easy and forgiving plane to fly; unlike the corsair
keep them coming I'm a big fan..any more b25 f4u films
there was a lot to remember at the take off.
@ Gary Mathews, 380mph. it was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 which developed 2,000 hp
2000 to 2800 hp what a engine
very nice video do you have a video on the F4U???
Extremely interesting for a flight simmer.
c'est génial !! super intéressant !
et vers 10:40 au dessus des nuages !
Wonderful!
★★★★
now boys & girls, remember all that shit while you're being chased and shot at by 3 zeros
Ha! Yeah, WW2 fighters were definitely about as complex as piston engine airplanes could get.
My dad flew these.
@Leonard Daniel Robertson....an amazing memory. thanks.
What ship? What VF?
Thanks to your dad we don’t speak German and you don’t speak Japanese. Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱.
@@hansvandijk1487 Actually I studied German as a minor in University. I wish I also knew Dutch. One of my ancestors may have lived in the Netherlands with the Pilgrims before sailing to Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower (17th century): maybe that Colonel Robertson knew some Gaelic and Dutch, besides English. They did not starve on the long voyage off course in the storm because of the Chinese rice bags in the hold for ballast. The Pilgrim Fathers had a vote to use Hebrew or English (and maybe German), if I recall correctly, as an official language, and English won. I'm sure lots of Dutch was used in New Amsterdam before it became New York.
@@jockellis USS Langley, and maybe USS Enterprise too; but originally from USS Vega Volunteer Force 52 I believe after surviving Pearl Harbor and shooting down one plane from the big ship guns. Of the 22 in the graduating class only 2, my dad and another pilot, survived the war without injury. Most bought it at the battle of the Coral Sea I heard him say. My dad did survive friendly fire bullets through his fuselage without incident. Almost flew straight down into the water off an aircraft carrier because his propeller pitch was wrong because he did not manually touch all his instruments, doing a mental check only, but sensing danger and skidding to a halt at the edge of the deck at the last minute and having to be pulled back for another attempt, every one screaming for him to hurry up because planes low on fuel needed to land. Awarded the 100,000 miles flying club (or was it 10,000?) without accidents (except almost falling out or floating out of the plane on a dive at Corpus Christi, the 120 degree kind where you're partly upside down and have to pull yourself back in with the flying stick...but that was on a training plane, with the window open...it would have been better to wear the seatbelt...and his trainee trying to laugh because the almost died, if they did not pull up but slammed into the ground...more than one pilot there died that way).
LOVE IT
I will show this to Rear Admiral Edward Lewis "Whitey" Feightner retired United States Navy ,was on the Enterprise and flew 4f4's, he lives two miles away from me ,99 yrs old last one from VF-10 . Butch O'hare's wingman.
The Hellcat would of done good in europe too! Produced in great numbers and been recorded @ top speed of 405 mph, it would of given fits to the Luftwaffe too! It was the Navies version of the Thinderbolt, and made alot of aces in the PTO!
One thing I find very interesting about this-and other military film lessons-that wasn't strongly (or sometimes even at all) depicted in movies and books (history or narrative) about the US military in WWII, is the strong safety culture. Prior to watching these, I had the impression that pilots, ground crews, soldiers, sailors, etc, were simply taught how to fight and do their respective jobs. No doubt in combat some corners were cut, but the safety culture depicted here rivals that of jobs I've had these days.
At 04:34 the tacho still reads 800 RPM while the narration calls it 1800 RPM. (The window pointer identifies the bottom of the one.)
04:50 shows the real 1800 RPM reading because the window pointer now aims at the base of 2 ),
A rugged well built aircraft. It has self sealing gas tanks, and an armored cockpit, to help protect the pilot.
>>-----------------> "...bring manifold pressure down to 42.376 during all 23.658 degree left turns that have no greater than a 22.098 degree downward pitch - if you're above 11,223 feet. Make sure to open blowers to 32.763 percent when doing so, except on quarter moon phases - or if it's on a first Tuesday of the month."
surearrow That's funny right there....
surearrow That is funny, but that's really how you had to deal with these things. So much manifold pressure, so many RPMs, so many degrees of cylinder head temp, etc. etc.
AND BEWARE OF LO BLOOD PRESSURE.
surearrow yea but it is so simple to fly
surearrow on a more serious note the fuel mixture and manifold pressure was extremely important in fact Charles Lindbergh showed the pilots of he p38 lighting his to almost double their range by a simple adjustment of manifold pressure vs mixture
Super!!
Range,climb rate,ceiling,speed,moneuverability,armament,carrier savvy. Credited for over 5,000 enemy planes destroyed The Hellcat was among the top seven weapons of WW II
Can you imagine trying to remember all this stuff while trying not to get shot down and or while you are trying to shoot down the other plane.
Yeah, he would have his hands full, but this looks as if it's a flight test.
We watched a restored Hellcat in the air at Duxford: the rate of climb was impressive.
Did they ever use the paddle blade prop that was developed for the P47. Since both the F6 and the F4 used the same engine as the P47. I remember that it made a big difference on the P47.
My God you sure were kept busy with all those control changes flying these WWll fighters !!! How do you remember it all ?
Months of ground school and flight training.
Back in the days when pilots were not aerospace engineers but still seat of the pants type vfr pilots more like fighting race car drivers what a great era of flight
yz450223 Technically, the requirement of pilots of that age was even greater because while the equipments are not as complex as today.... they were mostly manual...
today's aircraft by comparison are heavily automated in most of the mundane operations (and in the case of civilian aircraft, they are automated to such degree the aircraft literally can fly with preprogrammed flight plan with minimal pilot input.
in comparison, the pilots in WW2 era and up to early cold war were essentially very much a stick and rudder pilots who had to be able to feel their aircraft and know it inside out to fly it to it's best capability... and heck, for some aircrafts... you had to be familiar with the aircraft's quirks to even survive flying them.
They flew using what was called radio navigation
(as opposed to what we'd now call IFR).
Carrier ops required it because there aint no land marks at sea.
They used ADF/NDB. The range of NDB is good at sea - typically 90-120NM (or more).
Downside is it transmits on the AM band so any lightning and the ADF points directly at the thunderstorm rather than the transmitter. This is a problem - a really big problem as it sends you off course as well as into a thunderstorm to boot. No plane can withstand the forces of a thunderstorm. The wind goes up at 6000ft/min or more and down at a similar speed in close proximity creating shearing that tears planes to pieces. The hail is often huge as it goes up and down in the wind getting a coat of ice from supercooled water each time until its too heavy for the wind to hold it in the cloud and it falls to earth melting on the way down. The lightning inside is more violent than what we see when it hits the ground. The top of the thunderstorm is often above 35000ft in the tropics. No, you don't want to fly into a thunderstorm or be downwind of a thunderstorm. There are many rules in aviation to avoid them right down amount of fuel required for holding if they are forcast to upwind and down wind passing distances.
Very similar to the p47 republic aircooled radial engine that was recorded to hit 400 mph. Used mostly in PTO,it was a workhorse and almost indestructible with 50 cal.s 3 on each wing. It was the U.S.Navys' equivalent to to the Pratt an Whitney's P-47 Republic used in the ETO mostly. The Corsair and p-38s were commonly used in the pacific.
The Japanese Mitsubishi Zero was by 1943 becoming obsolete. Allied planes with the Hell Cat, P-38, P-51, Corsair, P-47 and the Britians Super -Marine Spitfire made the Zero outdated and easier target for allied fighter/Fighter- Bomber Planes.
To me, the Hell -Cat was an more updated and modified Navys' Wildcat of earlier years, which the Wildcat itself was a formidable plane; 50 cal.machine guns : 3 on each wing and good on incline and, also, on decline but not as good on turns and maybe 340-in speed as to Japanese Zerooes 360-390 in speed. But, the allies, and evan the nazis were ever modifying their.aircraft.
How about doing some more? P-38.P-51. F4u.
And it had enough power to get out of its own way, unlike the Wildcat it replaced. Still I've only heard good things about the Corsair too.
Dang this thing is more complex than a cessna or piper 😜
I was surprised at how big the Hellcat was
leighsoft me too, I never realized it until I saw the picture of the one crashed on the flight deck with a sailor trying to get the pilot out.
So when enemy was sighted and the attack about to begin, did the pilot pre-set throttle, blower, pitch or did he have to constantly adjust them when dogfighting?
+James Robert There's no doubt in my mind that he'd have to adjust throttle. You would want plenty of power in a climb or sharp turn, but wouldn't want to over speed in a dive. Not sure what else he'd have to fiddle with, though. Obviously, he'd be very busy while fighting!
Energy management is key. Engine management would aid in that. Especially if that pilot wanted to return to base and not grenade the engine.
The American aircraft of WW2, the rightfully appreciated wonders that could literally do it all.
i want to know how they adjusted boost and turned the blower on and off
Got a new paint job at 6:52...
Those were Corsairs at the beginning of the video.
I wonder how many if these procedures were practiced when you were scrambled because you had bandits coming in...
Most kills of any one fighter during WW II.
You must mean best kill ratio. The Messerschmitt shot down more enemy aircraft, but was also the most produced aircraft in history.
@@hb9145 I stand corrected. 19 to 1 ratio. And yes being aware of just one Bf pilot like Gunther Rall and his 275 confirmed. Now how many Hellcats and Bfs mixed it up? Surely the Brits operated a few Hell kittys.
CZcams I hate these ads
wow the old school stalls make me wanna hurl. but I know it's training.
Its hard to fly must be skilled
I've never seen a picture of a F6F with a 4 blade prop, anyone know if one was ever used on this fighter?
Wiki shows one of the prototypes w a 4 blade, but I don’t think anything but the familiar 3 blade was ever used operationally.
Light blue touch-paper, and run like hell.
Anyone have info of PAPER DOLL VF 27 I think ?
Ok...the temp gauges are in centigrade, but the manifold pressure is in inches, and altitude in feet, and airspeed in knots. What???
+leftcoaster67 Americans are smart enough to use multiple systems at the same time, but the rest of the world is so stupid that they can only handle one... 'MURICA!!! :P
RonJohn63 well I'm an Aussie & even though I'm only 50 I can still work stuff out in miles Klms inches & cms, even distance in Yards metres & Chains & rain in inches & cms & points! "Straya"!!
Who, in his right mind, would measure temperature in anything but Centigrade.
RonJohn63 There is life outside the U.S.A . I'm canadian and familiar with both systems . I'm 51 by the way .
@@vincentlefebvre9255 54 here. They say us Americans don't know metric.....when I have a 9mm and 5 grams on me. :)
fly off at 60 knots like a cessna 172
Pity that it didn't get the P-47's four bladed prop. It would have easily exceeded 400+mph.
Grumman did make a few developmental F6F-6s which had the 4 blade prop. My source (The book Hellcats at War) states that it could go 417 mph. But at that time the F8F Bearcat was pretty close to being adopted so the navy decided to focus on that. So in other words right you are!
State of the art cutting edge technology of U.S. Naval Air Power at the time. The manufacturing and production might of American factories and the people ( mostly women) is what helped "win" WW2 .
Man, those guys had to remember a whole lotta shit about their plane, inside and out!
@KJ....yes, so 'mechanical' unlike modern aircraft.
You should check out the B-29 Superfortress flight procedures, lolol..
And this plane was considered to be one of the easier ones to fly, especially compared to the Corsair and Thunderbolt.
The hellcat's cockpit is similar to the f4f wildcat but more little
Did he say 40gal/hr!? That's more fuel than max fuel for a PA-28 at 34 USG with over 3.5 hours endurance!
forgot to unlock tail wheel after landing lol
The engine sound like fishing boat engine 😁
And don't forget to unlock your tail wheel....
The channel Dronescapes has stolen this film and is showing it as their own.
Was it rue the Navy re-introduced the Corsair to carrier operations because the Hellcat wasn't fast enough to catch the fastest kamikazes?
I think it is
It might also be due to the Corsair's ability to stay aloft longer then the Hellcat
That's not true. The Japanese had some late-war designs that, while not mass produced in enough numbers to make any real difference, does put a hole in your argument. The Ki-84 and N1K were both faster than the fastest Hellcat variants. The Ki-84 was faster than the F4U-1, but not faster than the F4U-4. The Hellcat could not go 400mph. The last variant, the F6F-5, only went 390. The F6F was outclassed by the Japanese late-war fighters in speed, climb rate, and maneuverability. Only thing it had going for it were better pilots and more numbers.
A couple of minor points:
1) The Replenishment groups did not accompany the Fast Carrier Forces, too slow. It would have severely restricted their movement ability. Instead there were regular rendezvous points set up based upon the Fleet's activities. Usually only one or two of the Task Groups would replenish at any one time.
2) The Light Carriers, (CVL), were always in the front lines with the Fleet Carriers. Escort Carriers (CVE) traveled with the replenishment Groups to provide replacement aircraft and Pilots. Also all carriers carried a limited number of each type of aircraft on-board for loss replacement and spare parts.
3) I do not recall reading anywhere that the USN adopted "Milch Cow" type submarines to replenish submarines on Patrol Stations. They returned to base for reloads and rest between War Patrols. As the War progressed those Bases were moved closer and closer to the Patrol areas as Forward bases were captured and made secure.
4) The biggest thing the Japanese had going against them towards the end of the war was a lack of Trained and Experienced Pilots. They did not rotate out their Experienced Combat Pilots like the U.S. did to train new pilots. They were coming up with newer more capable aircraft, but could neither produce them in sufficient quantity, nor work out technical glitches for them to have an effect on the outcome of the war.
more rules please... i like rules and puppies.
18:37 Oreos? (Presumably "wheels", but still...)
Oleo struts.
PRACTICE A STALL WITH WINGS SHOT OFF
The certification comes with a P.H.D.
Hugh Johnson Are you kidding? This is an incredibly simple plane to fly especially considering it's performance. It's really not much harder than a Cessna 172 and it's landing and stall speeds are about the same. Grumman really thought out what was needed to allow 22 year olds to be safe and effective fighter pilots. The control groupings are the standard everybody has followed ever since. It's just a very safe, simple and stable aircraft by any definition and has no bad habits.
Karen-Audrey .Todd Becareful...Your ignorance is showing... Ive flown several WW2 vintage aircraft... None are easy to fly... some are easier than others... but none are easy. Just interpreting the "steam guages" were a chore, particularly in stressful conditons.. You wouldnt want to fly this airplane under IFR conditions.
Fighter airplanes of this vintage were very unstable by nature...they had to be in order to be nimble in a fight.
You cant mention C-172 and F-6F in the same sentence..they are not comparable..
+Fred Brillo
It sure was easier to land then the german BF109
+1barnet1 Perhaps...I couldnt tell you..Ive never flown a 109..
it had a landing gear the the width of a shopping cart with a v12 with way over a thousand horsepower and no visibility whatsoever.
there is a reason why a lot of good pilots died trying to land one.
Sounds like Robert Taylor narrating
One of the very few Japanese s plane who could stand against it was The George Niki j
Not enough of them to make a difference, like the ME262. Yes?
@@1mattadams Agree
I would hate to be the ground crew guy.
+Scott Taylor I would do that job just to get the hamburger stand hat and bell bottom pants
Son gordos y muy robustos
Vne 390 KIAS!
The Hellcat was the workhorse, Corsairs were the show ponies.
How in the hell are you supposed to fight in that A/C with all those considerations, climb and dive manifold limits and so on. Amazing really
An army advanced infantry trainer told me: “If you have to think in a combat situation then we haven’t done our job.” The same could be said by flight instructors. The Hellcat was an OJT fighter with plenty of armor to give pilots a fighting chance to learn from their mistakes. It didn’t have the tag Ensign Eliminator like the Corsair.
Those aviators would you usually train to the point where all those steps became muscle memory. In my opinion, this plane isn’t as difficult to fly as a Corsair or a P47.
The Hellcat was built due to data from a Zeke, not Zero from Alaska. Pilots called it a zeke, Hollywood called it a zero.
@18tangles
Dinky Winky Brown never fought a German plane in a Hellcat and he never landed a German plane on a carrier.
Being a Grumman designed carrier plane the Hellcat would be much more rugged than the FW-190 - sorry
He did fly the F4U as the Martlet (Wildcat) from the Audacity (a converted Banana boat, not very big) and he loved it said it was simple to land with its very compliant u/carriage and also the floatation bags for use when ditching. He did shoot down the heavily armed Condor - simply take it on directly from the front.
and watch the pilot cringe.
He lists the F6U as the fighter in the Pacific Theatre which introduced fighting in the vertical plane which helped it gain a Kill/Loss ratio of 19 to 1, The Zero was only better when used in the Horizontal plane and could use its phenominal turn.
@@derekambler Interesting about comparison of zero and hellcat in combat! Which was the better plane? I thought the hellcat could go up to 400 miles per /hrs.. and was heavily armoured with 3 50/cal. machine guns on both sides! A modified wildcat is what it was! But it had the most kill ratios out of all fighter planes during ww2?? Can that be clarified , and how would it stand against the mebf109 , fw190, and Great Britains spitfire!
Jezz could I do that ?
God, she's beautiful in flight.
Finally somebody says that :)
what was top speed of a hellcat ?
gary mathews 2000 hp
@gary mathews...i think it was around 385 mph...a bit lower than the Corsair, with similar engine.
Think the later would do 413, IIRC.
I thought it was 410mph at full throttle top speed! The Corsair was about410- 412. The Navies hellcats and corsairs were some of the best on both sides of the world!
2000 HORSEPOWER,,,,,, just repeat that a few times.
The one drawback on all these planes is no forward vision on the runway. I could imagine landing in an unfamiliar place then trying to find where you're supposed to taxi. Always in a zig-zag trying to see. The design really sucks.
Well, it was the only way to design it if you wanted a prop' large enough to generate any real speed.
Grand Inquisitor quite amazing how big those engines were. Nowadays we can get the same BHP from an engine 1/4 the size. (maybe even smaller im just guessing)
REAL pilots flew taildraggers!!!
orange70383 There were no really good visibility carrier planes that developed over 350 MPH back then.
On the carrier deck there were crew to assist with parking the plane. On land you will see crew men laying on the wings of P-47s while they taxi. You have to have a big paddle to go fast.
ketatrypt 2800 cubic inches
I´m getting dissy.
Good camera work but the video should have included the Before Engine Start and Engine Start checklists. A video about the F4U does include the Engine Start checklist and is probably close to the procedure in the F6F since both planes use the P&W R2800 radial engine. Although slower than the F4U, the F6F was reportedly a more forgiving aircraft to fly and land on carriers, but I have never heard a reasonable explanation why the Navy dumped the F6F after the war ended. At $35,000 per plane, they were much cheaper to buy and more were produced than the F4U. Both planes excelled at CAS and ground attack operations. Furthermore, the F6F could carry 4,000 pounds of ordinance or a 2,000 pound torpedo for anti-ship missions and had greater range. The F6F-6 had an increased top speed from 390 mph in the -5 version to 417 mph, making it comparable to the F4U-1 but slower than the F4U-4. Lightening the weight of the F6F by eliminating the folding wing and tail hook hardware for strictly land operations would have increased the top speed and maneuverability of the Hellcat. Given a choice, I would have preferred to fly the F6F Hellcat in combat.
Los aviones americanos gelka son potentes pero con muy feo el diseño los japoneses y alemanes son más bonitos
Gee whiz, if it takes that long to get the damn plane started I'm surprised that Japan didn't invade St.Louis
This is a training video. Believe me, those boys knew how to get them in the air quick.
For 1943 that was a hell of a complicated procedure, I don't think i could have flown it
It would be a hell of a complicated procedure today.
You should look up starting a Liberator or Fortress - you had 4 engines to sort out - lucky you used pretty constant settings on a bomber!!