"meeting, Lieutenant Commander Jimmie Thach emphasized one of the most important requirements in a good fighter plane was ""climb rate"". Climb performance is strongly related to the power-to-weight ratio, and is maximized by wrapping the smallest and lightest possible airframe around the most powerful available engine. Another goal was that the G-58 (Grumman's design designation for the aircraft) should be able to operate from escort carriers, which were then limited to the obsolescent F4F Wildcat as the Grumman F6F Hellcat was too large and heavy. A small, lightweight aircraft would make this possible. After intensively analyzing carrier warfare in the"
"4 minutes on 6 March 1990. Lear Jet : 1962–1969 Gates Learjet : 1969–1988 LearJet : 1988–1990 Bombardier Learjet : since 1990 Learjet Learjet is a Canadian owned, American aerospace manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it has been a subsidiary of Canadian Bombardier Aerospace since 1990, which markets it as the ""Bombardier Learjet Family"". The 3,000th Learjet was delivered in June 2017. Learjet was one of the first companies to manufacture a private, luxury aircraft. Lear's preliminary design"
"Black Cat (aircraft) Black Cat was a Consolidated B-24J-1-FO Liberator aircraft and the last American bomber to be shot down over Germany in World War II. It was one of thousands of B-24s produced by the Ford Motor Company at its Willow Run production plant. In April 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and SHAEF were convinced Hitler and other die-hard Nazis were planning to make a last stand in the Alps near Berchtesgaden. In order to prevent this happening, and because the European strategic air war was over, the Allied air forces tried to prevent the Germans from concentrating remaining"
"Admiral Radford honored a request from O'Hare to take a fighter as command aircraft instead of the Avenger, so O'Hare in a fateful decision happily drew Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat Bureau Number 66168 from the fleet pool to become his principal CAG plane, numbered ""00"". From 20 – November 23, 1943, the U.S. forces landed in the Gilberts (Tarawa and Makin), and the ""Enterprise"" joined in providing close air support to the Marines landing on Makin Island. Equipped with the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the U.S. Navy fighter pilots could protect the fleet from attacking Japanese aircraft. Faced with U.S. daylight air"
"Howard Aircraft Corporation Howard Aircraft Corporation was a small United States aircraft manufacturer in the 1930s and 1940s. The factory was initially on the south side of Chicago Municipal Airport at 5301 W. 65th Street; during World War II a second plant was opened at DuPage Airport west of Chicago. Designer Ben ""Benny"" Howard, after his success with smaller aircraft, designed and built the ""Mister Mulligan"", a successful 4-seat cross-country racer that also proved a worthy closed-course mount. While Beechcraft had designed and produced their Staggerwing for the private market, that aircraft was mechanically and structurally complex; Howard instead chose"
"Bell P-59 Airacomet The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a twin jet-engined fighter aircraft, the first produced in the United States, designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II. The United States Army Air Forces were not impressed by its performance and cancelled the contract when fewer than half of the aircraft ordered had been produced. Although no P-59s entered combat, the fighter paved the way for another design generation of U.S. turbojet-powered aircraft, and was the first turbojet fighter to have its turbojet engine and air inlet nacelles integrated within the main fuselage. Major General Henry H. ""Hap"""
"and tail and a supercharged version of the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 ""Twin Wasp"" radial engine. Testing of the new XF4F-3 led to an order for F4F-3 production models, the first of which was completed in February 1940. France also ordered the type, powered by a Wright R-1820 ""Cyclone 9"" radial engine, but France fell to the Axis powers before they could be delivered and the aircraft went instead to the British Royal Navy, who christened the new fighter the Martlet. The U.S. Navy officially adopted the aircraft type on 1 October 1941 as the Wildcat. The Royal Navy's and"
"Learjet Learjet is a Canadian owned, American aerospace manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it has been a subsidiary of Canadian Bombardier Aerospace since 1990, which markets it as the ""Bombardier Learjet Family"". The 3,000th Learjet was delivered in June 2017. Learjet was one of the first companies to manufacture a private, luxury aircraft. Lear's preliminary design was based upon an experimental American military aircraft known as the Marvel, substituting fuselage-mounted turbojet engines for ducted fan turboshaft engines. However,"
"all at Curtiss-Wright Corporation's main production facilities at Buffalo, New York. P-40 Warhawk was the name the United States Army Air Corps and after June 1941, USAAF-adopted name for all models, making it the official name in the U.S. for all P-40s. The British Commonwealth and Soviet air forces used the name Tomahawk for models equivalent to the P-40B and P-40C, and the name Kittyhawk for models equivalent to the P-40D and all later variants. P-40s first saw combat with the British Commonwealth squadrons of the Desert Air Force in the Middle East and North African campaigns, during June 1941."
"Grumman F4F Wildcat The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940, where it was initially known as the Martlet. First used in combat by the British in the North Atlantic, the Wildcat was the only effective fighter available to the United States Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during the early part of World War II in 1941 and 1942; the disappointing Brewster Buffalo was withdrawn in favor of the Wildcat and replaced as units became available. With a top"
"Warner Scarab The Warner Scarab is an American seven-cylinder radial aircraft engine, that was manufactured by the Warner Aircraft Corporation of Detroit, Michigan in 1928 through to the early 1940s. In military service the engine was designated R-420. Amongst the many uses for the Scarab, the engine was fitted to the Cessna Airmaster and the Fairchild 24 (UC61 or Argus). Notably, in 1942, it was put into use powering the Sikorsky R-4, the first helicopter to be put into production. Many of these reliable engines soldier on today, still powering the aircraft to which they were originally mounted. The Warner"
"success came with the P-40, variously known as the Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, and Warhawk, which were built between 1940 and 1944 at the main production facilities in Buffalo, New York. During the war, a second large plant was added at Buffalo, followed by new plants at Columbus, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Louisville, Kentucky. Engine and propeller production was at plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In May 1942, the U.S. government assigned Curtiss-Wright a defense production factory for wartime aircraft construction at Louisville, Kentucky, to produce the C-76 Caravan cargo plane, which was constructed mostly of wood, a non-priority"
"AeroLites Bearcat The AeroLites Bearcat is an American amateur-built aircraft, designed and produced by AeroLites, of Welsh, Louisiana and introduced in 1984. The aircraft is supplied as a kit for amateur construction. The Bearcat features a strut-braced parasol-wing, a single-seat open cockpit, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft fuselage is made from welded 4130 steel tubing with the wing constructed with an aluminum structure, with its flying surfaces covered in Dacron sailcloth. The ribs slide into pockets in the fabric. Its span wing employs a Clark Y airfoil and has an area of"
"designation of Martlet IV. Two F4F-3s (the 3rd and 4th production aircraft, BuNo 1846/1847) were fitted with a Wright R-1820-40 engine and designated XF4F-5. General Motors / Eastern Aircraft produced 5,280 FM variants of the Wildcat. Grumman's Wildcat production ceased in early 1943 to make way for the newer F6F Hellcat, but General Motors continued producing Wildcats for both U.S. Navy and Fleet Air Arm use. Late in the war, the Wildcat was obsolescent as a front line fighter compared to the faster (380 mph/610 km/h) F6F Hellcat or much faster (446 mph/718 km/h) F4U Corsair. However, they were adequate"
"Republic Aviation The Republic Aviation Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. Originally known as the Seversky Aircraft Company, the company was responsible for the design and production of many important military aircraft, including its most famous products: World War II's P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, the F-84 Thunderjet and F-105 Thunderchief jet fighters, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II close-support aircraft. The Seversky Aircraft Company was founded in 1931 by Alexander de Seversky, a Russian expatriate and veteran World War I pilot who had lost a leg in the war. In the beginning, many"
"de Aviación, Ilopango Air Base. Dassault Ouragan The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan () is a French fighter-bomber developed and produced by Dassault Aviation. It has its origins in a private venture by Dassault to produce an all-French aircraft which would make use of jet propulsion, which subsequently would receive orders from the French Air Force. The Ouragan holds the distinction of being the first jet-powered French-designed combat aircraft to enter production, and thus played a key role in the resurgence of the French aviation industry following the Second World War. The Ouragan was operated by France, India, Israel and El Salvador."
"from these defeats the Navy stabilized its lines in summer 1942. At the start of the war, the United States and Japan were well matched in aircraft carriers, in terms of numbers and quality. Both sides had nine, but the Mitsubishi A6M Zero carrier fighter plane was superior in terms of range and maneuverability to its American counterpart, the F4F Wildcat. By reverse engineering a captured Zero, the American engineers identified its weaknesses, such as inadequate protection for the pilot and the fuel tanks, and built the Hellcat as a superior weapon system. In late 1943 the Grumman F6F Hellcats"
"plaque was erected to commemorate the dead. Surviving members of the 466th Bomb Group petitioned the U.S. Postal Service to release a postage stamp depicting ""Black Cat"" in flight. The stamp was released in 2005. Black Cat (aircraft) Black Cat was a Consolidated B-24J-1-FO Liberator aircraft and the last American bomber to be shot down over Germany in World War II. It was one of thousands of B-24s produced by the Ford Motor Company at its Willow Run production plant. In April 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and SHAEF were convinced Hitler and other die-hard Nazis were planning to make"
"came to and retained prominence in its area of greatest deployment: land based use by the U.S. Marines. Due to logistics issues and initial problems with carrier landings, the role of the dominant U.S. carrier based fighter aircraft was thus filled by the Grumman F6F Hellcat, powered by the same Double Wasp engine first flown on the Corsair's first prototype in 1940. The Corsair also served in the U.S. Navy. In addition to its use by the U.S. and British, the Corsair was also used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, French Naval Aviation, and other air forces until"
"Curtiss P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational service. The Warhawk was used by most Allied powers during World War II, and remained in frontline service until the end of the war. It was the third most-produced American fighter of World War II, after the P-51 and P-47; by November 1944, when production of the P-40 ceased, 13,738 had been built,"
"off. Under Wallace, the Cessna Aircraft Company survived until the early years of World War II, before American involvement, when Wallace was able to secure contracts with the U.S. and Canadian government to build training plane variants of the Bobcat for the Royal Canadian Air Force (which was already aiding Great Britain in the war), and, as the Cessna AT-8 advanced trainer, it was acquired by the thousands by the U.S. Army Air Corps, to train most U.S. transport and bomber pilots for the war, and for use as a light transport. By war's end, over 5,000 had been delivered,"
"Bell Helicopter Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft in and around Fort Worth, as well as in Amarillo, Texas, and commercial helicopters in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada. The company was founded on July 10, 1935 as Bell Aircraft Corporation by Lawrence Dale Bell in Buffalo, New York. The company focused on the designing and building of fighter aircraft. Their first fighters were the XFM-1 Airacuda, a twin-engine fighter for attacking bombers, and the P-39 Airacobra. The P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, the P-63"
"Bell Helicopter Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft in and around Fort Worth, as well as in Amarillo, Texas, and commercial helicopters in Mirabel, Quebec, Canada. The company was founded on July 10, 1935 as Bell Aircraft Corporation by Lawrence Dale Bell in Buffalo, New York. The company focused on the designing and building of fighter aircraft. Their first fighters were the XFM-1 Airacuda, a twin-engine fighter for attacking bombers, and the P-39 Airacobra. The P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, the P-63"
"manufacturer Air Cooled Motors Corporation. The Civil Aeronautics Administration assigned registration number NC1776 to this aircraft, symbolizing the Benevolent Fund's aid to Britain in the same manner as the Lend Lease Act, which had Congressional number HR1776. The March 1941 Lend Lease Act was the principal vehicle for the U.S. to provide military aid to foreign nations before its entry in World War II. The other forty-eight Cubs had one of three engines: Continental, Lycoming or Franklin. To honor the RAF, instead of the signature yellow Cub color, the Flitfire airplanes were painted silver with RAF insignia. Royal Air Force"
"used by the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels official flight demonstration team at its formation in 1946. A relatively large number of Grumman F6Fs survive to this day, either in museums or in flyable condition. In order of Bu.No. they are: Grumman F6F Hellcat 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"
"a major role during the Guadalcanal Campaign of 1942–43. It was not until 1943 that more advanced naval fighters capable of taking on the Zero on more even terms, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair, reached the South Pacific theater. The Japanese ace Saburō Sakai described the Wildcat's capacity to absorb damage: Grumman's Wildcat production ceased in early 1943 to make way for the newer F6F Hellcat, but General Motors continued producing Wildcats for both U.S. Navy and Fleet Air Arm use. At first, GM produced the FM-1 (identical to the F4F-4, but with four guns). Production later"
"for its operations in the South Pacific from December 1942 to July 1944. The nickname ""Flying Boxcars"" was widely used for the Douglas R4D aircraft flown by Marine Corps units in SCAT, predating its attachment to the post-war Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (R4Q) aircraft. Notable persons who had been associated with SCAT include: South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command South Pacific [SOPAC] Combat Air Transport Command (SCAT) was a joint command of US military logistics units in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. It contributed notably to the success of U.S. forces in the battles for Guadalcanal (1942–1943),"
"in military service with Brazil and the Nationalist Chinese. Cessna AT-17 Bobcat The Cessna AT-17 Bobcat was a twin-engined advanced trainer aircraft designed and made in the United States, and used during World War II to bridge the gap between single-engined trainers and twin-engined combat aircraft. The AT-17 was powered by two Jacobs R-755-9 radial reciprocating engines. The commercial version was the Model T-50, from which the AT-17 was developed. The AT-17 was a military version of the commercial Cessna T-50 light transport. The Cessna Airplane Company first produced the wood and tubular steel, fabric-covered T-50 in 1939 for the"
"Dassault Ouragan The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan () is a French fighter-bomber developed and produced by Dassault Aviation. It has its origins in a private venture by Dassault to produce an all-French aircraft which would make use of jet propulsion, which subsequently would receive orders from the French Air Force. The Ouragan holds the distinction of being the first jet-powered French-designed combat aircraft to enter production, and thus played a key role in the resurgence of the French aviation industry following the Second World War. The Ouragan was operated by France, India, Israel and El Salvador. While in Israeli service, the"
"Mills (owner of US automobile kit-maker MPC) through its UK Palitoy subsidiary, the kit moulds being quickly shipped to its factory in Calais, France. Later, Airfix aircraft kits were marketed in the United States under the MPC label and some MPC kits were sold in the UK under the Airfix name (an example being the scale vintage Stutz Bearcat kit originally produced as a tie-in to the ""Bearcats!"" television series). Airfix released MPC kits based on the Star Wars film series. Airfix's market share reduced to 40% of the UK market (2.3 million kits) though it had 75% of the"
"Packard as the Packard Merlin. In addition to the British making use of American planes the US also made use of some Supermarine Spitfires based in the UK and Mediterranean, as well as using Bristol Beaufighter night fighters in the Mediterranean, and de Havilland Mosquitoes based in the UK. The United States supplied several aircraft types to both the Royal Navy and RAF - all three of the U.S. Navy's primary fighters during the war years, the Wildcat, Corsair (with the RN assisting the Americans with preparing the Corsair for U.S. naval carrier service by 1944), and Hellcat also served"
"wing components and fuel tanks. Carlson Aircraft Carlson Aircraft is an American aircraft design and manufacturing company based in East Palestine, Ohio. Ernst W. Carlson founded Carlson Aircraft to market his Carlson Sparrow ultralight aircraft designs as aircraft kits. He later added the Criquet, a 75% scale replica of the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch Second World War liaison aircraft and the Carlson Skycycle, a replica of the A. Hanford Eckman designed Piper PA-8 Skycycle of 1945. In the late 2000s Carlson sold the Sparrow line to ""Skyline Technologies""' of Salem, Ohio, but that company no longer produces the Sparrow series."
"General Aircraft Corporation The General Aircraft Company was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company formed in the 1940s and ceased involvement with aircraft in 1976. The company was established at Lowell, Massachusetts to build an aircraft designed by Doctor Otto C. Koppen, a professor of aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The aircraft was the G1-80 Skyfarer, a two-seat cabin high-wing braced monoplane. Before the company could produce the aircraft in any numbers the Second World War intervened, and the Skyfarer programme was abandoned after 17 examples had been built. The company became a manufacturer of the Waco"