Marlets, F4F's, FM-2's, ...

[Mark Allen M]

Grumman Martlet MkII


French Grumman Martlet MkI


Grumman Martlet Mk VI


Grumman Martlets


Grumman Martlets MkI


Grumman Martlet IV North Africa 1943


Grumman Martlet II


Grumman Martlet 1940 French


Grumman Martlet 1940 French


Grumman G-36A Roosevelt Fld 1940


Grumman F4F-4s USS Charger


Grumman F4F-4s 1942




Grumman F4F-3 Farmingdale Ill 1942


Grumman F4F Wildcat Concealed by Camouflage Netting


F4F-3 Guadalcanal 1942


Grumman F4F-3S 1944


FM-2








Sable carrier training


F4F OperationTorch

[The Inspector]

The shot of the French MARTLET @ Bethpage in front of the hanger is more interesting for what's in the background. The G-44 WIDGEON is numero uno, the F3F in the background is actually a cat with 9 lives. Built as a factory demonstrator G-32A 2 seater, it was registered NC-1326 (as in this photo, which fixes the picture in time) was taken over by the USAAF as a UC-103 s/n 4297045 and originally sent to Bolling Field in D.C. as a big hat transport then sent to Homestead AAFB.
Postwar reregistered as NC-46110 by Clayton Long. This is the F3F that caught fire in flight and was abandoned by the occupants @ OSH in Aug of 1971 via parachute. The bits were collected along with parts of other recovered wrecks and rebuilt by the Texas Airplane Factory registered N 110TF and has since made appearances all over the world as a representative of VF-7.

[Junkyard36]

Mark -

Loving your photo threads - especially this one! Please keep it up - more please!



Mike

[WallyB]

Peculiar representation of UK serials - A.M.997 should be AM997

[Rob Mears]

Can anyone account for the flight characteristics of the Wildcat? Other than having to crank that beastly landing gear, I've often wondered if it was a struggle or a delight to tear about in the thing.

[Noha307]

What's the story behind the one on the carrier with the missing tail? Torn off by tailhook?

Shouldn't these photo threads be in the photo thread section?

[bombadier29]

The tail tore loose after catching a wire. If you look at the structure sticking straight out of the end of the fuselage you are looking at the structure that the hook rides along. It is normally bent downwards but the force of being pulled so hard has straightened it out. The took was manually operated by a sliding handle along the left side of the cockpit, just below the canopy rail. Must have been a heck of a ride when it ripped loose!

Flying the FM-2 was fun. It had no red line speed and everything was manual. The flaps were vacume operated, the cowl flaps were manual, the gear was manual and so was the wing folding. Even the gun chargers were manual. The gear wasn't any harder to move than rolling up the windows of a car as long as everything was well lubricated and you didn't go too fast. The farther into the procedure you went the harder it got as the doors started to catch air. The wing is really wide and although it was fun to fly it sure did nothing in a hurry. It was cheap to fly compared to a lot of other fighters. It was also one of the loudest airplanes I've ever been in. I would liken it to being inside an oil drum and having a tribe of indians beat on it with pipes. From a maintenance standpoint it is a jewel. No hydraulics except for the brakes and with the cowling off you can reach everything. Some problems with cracking the exhausts but that just goes with the territory.

[Wilson]

The Wildcat missing its tail is another Operation Torch photo. Ens. Joe Gallano of VGF-29 on USS Santee on 11/8/42. Gallano received only minor injuries and continued flying in Torch. His Wildcat was shoved over the side.

[Pat Carry]

Mark -

Loving your photo threads - especially this one! Please keep it up - more please!



Mike

I'll second that!

[Pat Carry]

Dont ask me why but I just love the Wildcat!

[Noha307]

Mark -

Loving your photo threads - especially this one! Please keep it up - more please!



Mike

I'll second that!

Dont ask me why but I just love the Wildcat!

Thirded, seconded and thanks for the background on the incident.

Where are you pulling these photos out of?

Imaging the tailless F4F in a museum!
"What happened to that aircraft?"
"Well..."

[Red Baaron]

Where are you pulling these photos out of?

For the love of God, don't ask that question!!!!!

[hang the expense]

Dont ask me why but I just love the Wildcat!

Because you have darn good taste in airplanes is my guess.The stubby little thing is just really cool and made a real good accounting of its self early in the dark days of the pacific war before all that late model trash showed up.

[The Inspector]

Mark -

Loving your photo threads - especially this one! Please keep it up - more please!



Mike

I'll second that!

Dont ask me why but I just love the Wildcat!

Thirded, seconded and thanks for the background on the incident.

Where are you pulling these photos out of?

Imaging the tailless F4F in a museum!
"What happened to that aircraft?"
"Well..."

'budget cuts'

[JDK]

Many of the images are Grumman origin, and have been seen here before in 'Armyjunk's excellent, long, stickied thread above: 'Grumman, the people that made the planes 12 SEPT 2010' - more importantly, they've been discussed before, there, so worth a look. But good to see them again!

Peculiar representation of UK serials - A.M.997 should be AM997

Good point. Looks like a classic example of a foreign manufacturer misunderstanding painting instructions. It's worth noting, though, that it's common for even British military personnel to insert a space between the letters and numbers in W.W.II era serials, including on the aircraft. Officially, as you've said it should be expressed as one block, no punctuation.

Re- Martlet. That's the Royal Navy's name for the type, though it was replaced with Wildcat in due course. I was wondering how the French Aéronavale examples acquired the name Martlet in this thread (as it was not the French navy's name for the type) but I guess it's a classic hindsight thing; no G-36s were delivered to France before the German invasion, and most (all?) were diverted to the Royal Navy, where they were named Martlets in British service, so that's how the photos got labelled, I suspect.

I'm not sure what the French intended to call them; probably just 'Groomens'

Regards,