Question: Which aircraft did ace pilot Gordon Arthur Stanley fly from aircraft carriers during World War II?
Context: The Royal Navy built three aircraft maintenance carriers for its Fleet Air Arm before and during World War II.  The Abyssinia Crisis of 1934–35 demonstrated to the Admiralty that it needed a depot ship to support the aircraft carriers in active service, just like submarine and destroyer tenders supported those types.  Begun just before the start of World War II in 1939, HMS "Unicorn" was the first ship built in any navy that could "carry out the full range of aircraft maintenance and repair work in addition to the ability to operate aircraft from the flight deck".  "Unicorn" proved the value of the concept and two similar support ships, "Perseus" and "Pioneer" were converted into aircraft maintenance ships by modifying light carriers while still under construction.  Unlike "Unicorn", neither "Pioneer" nor "Perseus" were able to land aircraft; they had to be craned aboard. The "Lexington"-class aircraft carriers were a pair of aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy (USN) during the 1920s.  The ships were built on hulls originally laid down as battlecruisers after World War I, but under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, all U.S. battleship and battlecruiser construction was cancelled.  The Treaty, however, allowed two of the unfinished ships to be converted to carriers.  They were the first operational aircraft carriers in the USN and were used to develop carrier aviation tactics and procedures before World War II in a series of annual exercises. The "Zuihō" class (瑞鳳型 ) was a group of two aircraft carriers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy before World War II.  Both ships were originally built as submarine tenders, but were subsequently converted into carriers.  Completed in early 1942, "Shōhō" supported the invasion forces in Operation MO, the invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, and was sunk by American carrier aircraft on her first combat operation during the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May.  "Shōhō" was the first Japanese aircraft carrier to be sunk during World War II.  "Zuihō" played a secondary role in the Battle of Midway in mid-1942 and did not engage any American aircraft or ships during the battle.  The ship participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign during the rest of 1942.  She was lightly damaged during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during this campaign and covered the evacuation of Japanese forces from the island in early 1943 after repairs. Aircraft carriers have their origins during the days of World War I.  The earliest experiments consisted of fitting temporary "flying off" platforms to the gun turrets of the warships of several nations, notably the United States and the United Kingdom.  The first ship to be modified with a permanent flight deck was the battlecruiser HMS "Furious" , which initially had a single flying-off deck forward of the original superstructure.  Subsequently, she was modified with a separate "landing on" deck aft and later with a full flush deck.  Other ships, often liners, were modified to have full flush flight decks, HMS "Argus" being the first to have such modification begun.  Those first faltering steps gave little indication of just how important the aircraft carrier was to prove to be.  During the inter-war years (between the World Wars), Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States built up significant carrier fleets so that by the beginning of World War II, they had 18 carriers between them.  The 1940 Battle of Taranto and the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor in retrospect showed the world that the aircraft carrier was to be the most important ship in the modern fleet.  Today, aircraft carriers are the capital ships of the navies they serve in, and in the case of modern US "supercarriers", they embark an airgroup that is effectively a small air force. The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II.  Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy's dominant fighter in the second half of the Pacific War.  The Hellcat competed with the faster Vought F4U Corsair for that role and prevailed, as the Corsair had significant issues with carrier landings.  The Corsair instead was primarily deployed to great effect in land-based use by the U.S. Marine Corps. USS "Saratoga" (CV-3) was a "Lexington"-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s.  Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.  The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career.  "Saratoga" and her sister ship, "Lexington" , were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II.  On more than one occasion these included successful surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with "Enterprise" and "Ranger" , to serve throughout World War II. The "Chitose"-class aircraft carriers (千歳型航空母艦 , Chitose-gata kōkūbokan ) were a class of two seaplane tenders, later converted to light aircraft carriers, of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.  Under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, the total tonnage of Japan's naval vessels was limited by class.  The "Chitose"-class ships were built as seaplane tenders, designed to make the conversion to aircraft carriers relatively easy.  They served as seaplane tenders during the early part of the Pacific War.  After the Battle of Midway, they were converted into light aircraft carriers.  Both ships participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and both were sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The "Unryū"-class aircraft carriers (雲龍型航空母艦 , Unryū-gata Kōkūbokan ) were World War II Japanese aircraft carriers.  16 carriers were planned under the Maru Kyū Programme (Ship #302 in 1941) and the Kai-Maru 5 Programme (#5001–5015 in 1942).  However, only 3 of the Unryū class carriers were completed. Gordon Arthur Stanley was a World War II fighter pilot who achieved ace status in the Pacific Theatre flying Grumman F6F Hellcats, credited with eight victories.  As a U.S. Naval Reserve Officer, he was killed in an accident on 19 April 1956 while flying a Grumman F9F-6 Cougar of Naval Aviation Reserve Training Unit (NARTU), Naval Air Station Glenview, Illinois. Submarine aircraft carriers were developed by the Imperial Japanese Navy to a greater extent than any other navy, before and during World War II.  In total, 42 were built, as listed below (other sources say 47).  Although other navies had experimented with submarine aircraft carriers, by World War II the IJN was the only navy (aside from one fielded by the French Navy) using them.  They had little effect on the war, although two were used to carry out attacks on the continental United States.
Answer: Grumman F6F Hellcat