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F6F Hellcat - 8/31/43

As I understand it the F^F is responsible for shooting down more enemy aircraft than any other Allied fighter in any other theater.
 
Not being well educated in US history living north of the border I completely forgot about those planes till you mentioned it. I think I remember them saying in the Pearl Harbour movie "Send in the Hellcats!" That names carries with it a huge weight of honour and Dodge developed a pretty fitting car to have the honour of carrying on the name.
 
Apparently they're magical too. That's the plane in that recent Dodge Ram commercial where the young guy and the WWII vet drag it out of a boneyard with a Ram pickup truck, dust it off, do a little grinding on it, then take it out and fly it.

Any other WWII plane requires years of restoration work, being stripped down to the bare structure and every piece checked.
 

My son has been helping a bunch of old guys get an A26 Invader flight worthy...not much similarity to a F6F Hellcat except it shares the same/similar 2000hp Pratt&Whitney engines(times two on the A26)...
 
Thanks for the post, UD.

The father of a HS classmate of mine (class of 1967) flew Hellcats off WWII carriers late in the war. Late in the war, he was never in combat. After the war he took a job at a local company and eventually became company pilot flying a twin engine (I believe) Cessna.

During senior week in 67 (when seniors were not required to attend classes the week before graduation) his plane developed engine trouble upon landing at the private company airport. His plane crashed and all aboard were killed. I well remember the tragedy.

His son, my classmate, joined the Navy after college and became a pilot of a 4 engine anti submarine plane. If my information is correct, he eventually made Admiral.

I'll be seeing him at our 50 year anniversary in about a month.
 
Great link UD:



@JF

1) In any single theater of oeprations, the top would be the F6F Hellcat, with 5,168 kills in the Pacific Thearter of Operations. Next would the P-51 Mustang with 4,950 kills in the European Theater of Operations.

2) For the entire war combined, all theaters, it would be the P-51 Mustang with 5,954 kills in ETO, MTO, PTO, and CBI all combined, followed by the Hellcat with 5,168 in PTO and ETO.

Both were deployed in 1943 with the F6F being the first to deploy in US operations.

Rick
 
I think so, Steve, but it's been a long time since I spoke with him.

I'm a history buff and will be seeing him in about a month. I'll ask.

Dean
 
Not to take anything away from the Hellcat, after all it had to launch and land on moving ships, in addition to its other duties, but I'll vote for the P-51.

Aside from the first year or so of the US involvement in WWII, the planes and, especially, pilots faced by US pilots in Europe were much better than those faced by our pilots in the Pacific.
 
history class was the only subject I truly looked forward to in high school. especially when it came to American history.
 
Below is a link to a video about "the last fighter pilot" of WWII.

Yes, it's a video encouraging one to buy his book (It's on my list), but the part about the Kamikaze pilot that encouraged his daughter to marry the son of this P-51 pilot, and his reasoning, is touching.

Dean
 
A very wise man once said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Sadly, little priority is given to history these days.

Dean
George Santayans
 
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