page_title: Grumman F6F Hellcat
section_title: XF6F
hierarchical_section_title: Grumman F6F Hellcat / Design and development / XF6F
caption_attribution_description: PictionID:41546386 - Title:Ray Wagner Collection Image - Catalog:16_000464 Grumman F6F-3 USS Yorktown 1943-44 - Filename:16_000464 Grumman F6F-3 USS Yorktown 1943-44.tif - - Image from the Ray Wagner Collection. Ray Wagner was Archivist at the San Diego Air and Space Museum for several years and is an author of several books on aviation --- ---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
context_page_description: 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, outdueling the faster Vought F4U Corsair, which had problems with carrier landings.
  Powered by a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp, the same powerplant used for both the Corsair and the United States Army Air Forces Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, the F6F was an entirely new design, but it still resembled the Wildcat in many ways. Some military observers tagged the Hellcat as the "Wildcat's big brother".
  The F6F made its combat debut in September 1943, and was best known for its role as a rugged, well-designed carrier fighter, which was able to outperform the A6M Zero and help secure air superiority over the Pacific theater. A total of 12,275 were built in just over two years.
  Hellcats were credited with destroying a total of 5,223 enemy aircraft while in service with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. This was more than any other Allied naval aircraft.
context_section_description: Grumman had been working on a successor to the F4F Wildcat since 1938 and the contract for the prototype XF6F-1 was signed on 30 June 1941. The aircraft was originally designed to use the Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone two-row, 14-cylinder radial engine of 1,700 hp (1,300 kW) (the same engine used with Grumman's then-new torpedo bomber under development), driving a three-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller. Instead of the Wildcat's narrow-track, hand-cranked main landing gear retracting into the fuselage that it had inherited, little changed in design from the 1931-debuted Grumman FF-1 fighter biplane, the Hellcat had wide-set, hydraulically actuated landing gear struts that rotated through 90° while retracting backwards into the wings, but with full wheel doors fitted to the struts that covered the entire strut and the upper half of the main wheel when retracted, and twisted with the main gear struts through 90º during retraction. The wing was mounted lower on the fuselage and was able to be hydraulically or manually folded, with each panel outboard of the undercarriage bay folding backwards from pivoting on a specially oriented, Grumman-patented "Sto-Wing" diagonal axis pivoting system much like the earlier F4F, with a folded stowage position parallel to the fuselage with the leading edges pointing diagonally down.
  Throughout early 1942, Leroy Grumman, along with his chief designers Jake Swirbul and Bill Schwendler, worked closely with the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) and experienced F4F pilots, to develop the new fighter in such a way that it could counter the Zero's strengths and help gain air command in the Pacific Theater of Operations. On 22 April 1942, Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare toured the Grumman Aircraft company and spoke with Grumman engineers, analyzing the performance of the F4F Wildcat against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in aerial combat.  BuAer's Lt Cdr A. M. Jackson  directed Grumman's designers to mount the cockpit higher in the fuselage. In addition, the forward fuselage sloped down slightly to the engine cowling, affording the Hellcat's pilot good visibility.
caption: An F6F-3 aboard USS Yorktown has its "Sto-Wing" folding wings deployed for takeoff
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