The 'Petulant Porpoise' Then & Now ...

[Mark Allen M]

Grumman J4F-2 Widgeon "Petulant Porpoise" c/n 1330 BuNo 32976, which now is on static display at the Pima Air & Space Museum.

"This Widgeon was built by Grumman in Bethpage, NY and was accepted by the Navy on September 20, 1943. It served with support squadrons in Seattle, Washington and Memphis, Tennessee until 1948 when it was turned over to the Edo Corporation to be modified for testing of new seaplane hull designs. Modifications included a new landing gear design that retracts up along side the fuselage rather than into it. Painted yellow, redesignated E-175 and given the name “Petulant Porpoise” it was assigned to the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) and based at Langley Field, Virginia. The first hull shape tested was a half scale replica of the Martin XP5M-1. Over the next five years the aircraft was used to test other experimental hull designs."
https://pimaair.org/visit/museum-aircra ... man/j4f-2/

Specifications:
Wingspan 40 ft
Length 31 ft 1 in
Height 11 ft 5 in
Weight 4,525 lbs (loaded)
Max. Speed 153 mph
Service Ceiling 14,600 ft
Range 800 miles
Engines 2 Ranger L-440-5, 200 hp
Crew 2 and 4 passengers


Washington DC May 1956.


Currently on static display at the Pima Air & Space Museum.

[Scott Rose]

Obviously at some point they shortened the nose, I wonder why? I like the look of the longer nose but I can imagine it would be a bit of an issue breaking waves.

[old iron]

The "Petulent Porposies" was originally designed to test hull shapes, and I assume this would have extended to hulls. So what is now on the Pima specimen is the last tested design.

The plane was once part of the NASM collection, stored outside for many years, and then traded (along with the F8F prototype) to Darryl Greenamyer for the F8F-2 Conquest speed-record holder.

[Scott Rose]

The "Petulent Porposies" was originally designed to test hull shapes, and I assume this would have extended to hulls. So what is now on the Pima specimen is the last tested design.

The plane was once part of the NASM collection, stored outside for many years, and then traded (along with the F8F prototype) to Darryl Greenamyer for the F8F-2 Conquest speed-record holder.

Cool, didn't realize it was a test bed, just thought it was experimental. Thanks for the clarification

[jamesintucson]

There were at least five different hulls that were tested on the Widgeon. We have three of them. Two of them are on display. One on the plane and one sitting along the wall behind it. We didn't have room to put the third one out. None of them are the long nosed one that shows up in most of the historical photos. If you look closely at the photo you can see the bazillion bolts that hold the top and bottom halves of the plane together.

James

[C VEICH]

Seen the old girl many times but never noticed, until today, the very non-standard "star and bar" insignia. Interesting stuff.

[jdeters79]

Interesting. I was at Pima a year or so ago, and saw this plane. Obviously didn't do a good job looking at it to understand its R&D history.

Looks like in the old photo with the longer nose/hull, there were additional "vertical stabilizers" on the horizontal. No surprise really since the longer nose would be directionally destabilizing, thus requiring additional vertical stab to aid in flying qualities/handling.

[Cvairwerks]

Found a photo of her in the Ginter PBM book this afternoon. Sitting next to the XP5M-1/M-270 reasearch bird.

[Chris Brame]

We got the Then & Now - here's the in-between, from the March 3, 1978 issue of Trade-A-Plane; note it's wearing the test hull for the Martin XP5M-1:

From Leon Cleaver's (Woodsy Airfield) scrapbook.