Strange Hellcat

[Mgawa]

Greetings all,

any idea about this Hellcat with blown canopy:



Find this image on ebay few years ago but after that I did not get any more info about this version of Hellcat. Is this for US or FAA model?

[Jerry O'Neill]

Definitely a British FAA Helacat.
Never seenone with teh mirror and blown canopy!
Jerry

[Asterperious]

It Is FAA, propably spitfire canopy & mirror to give more side visability and rear view, Same reason a lot of US guys field modified P-51 B/C's with the Malcolm hood and spitfire mirros.

[Mgawa]

Thank you for your comments. To regret this feature will stay for some time mystery. Well here you are something other- profile of British Hellcat and this one will be published in May.

[ltdann]

That Grumman actually did. It was on the XF6F-5 for at least part of its career, but was not accepted into series production as far as I know. I believe there is a photo of this in the Hellcat Walk-Around.

Perhaps this Hellcat was modified post-delivery using Grumman's engineering?

Rich Dann

[EDowning]

When I saw the name of the topic, I thought this was going to be about some guy in california.

[ltdann]

Ed,

Love your avatar of the mug from 12 o'clock high. I have one of those.
How was the snow down in the valley yesterday? 10 inches at Boeing, 2 inches out at Highway K.

Willing to come sweep the hangar for the price of a cup of coffee.

Rich

[EDowning]

Itdan wrote:

Willing to come sweep the hangar for the price of a cup of coffee.

No need to come by and sweep the floors, I added this little baby to the Wild Relics stable this week. Now, you can just come by for a visit.



And before the wise asses on the forum start in.....this is not the mystery addition to the Refuge that I refered to in the "Mike Rawson" post.

When I saw the name of the topic, I thought this was going to be about some guy in california.

Ugh!!!! ... so did I at first, I was afraid to open it, but then I realized it would have been called .... "very strange hellcat" ...

Actually "strange hellcat" has a good ring to it, think I'll ask Scott to change my login name. Or maybe one of these:

"strange hellcat driver"
"what if"
"I'm nice until it's time to not be nice"
"hellcat jekyll" (depending on my mood that day)
"hellcat hyde" (see note above)
"@#$%*&^%"

Mark some guy in California

[warbird1]

And before the wise asses on the forum start in.....this is not the mystery addition to the Refuge that I refered to in the "Mike Rawson" post.

Wow Eric, you got a Zamboni! I assume it is cold enough on your hangar floor to play hockey? Do you drive it as well?

[JDK]

It Is FAA, propably spitfire canopy & mirror to give more side visability and rear view, Same reason a lot of US guys field modified P-51 B/C's with the Malcolm hood and spitfire mirros.

I'd agree it's probably FAA, given the uniforms, although the pilot's goggles look US rather than British style. Any experts?

However the canopy's definitely not Spitfire - just the wrong shape and would be way too small for a Hellcat. I'd guess at a Malcolm hood?

Cheers

[ltdann]

I'll say it again. Grumman did engineering for a blown canopy.........

[Swiss Mustangs]

it's a classical Malcolm Hood - definitely british design - similar to those installed in USAAF and RAF Mustangs and Thunderbolts.

Martin

[JDK]

I'll say it again. Grumman did engineering for a blown canopy.........

Sorry, missed your previous. Does it look like the pic above?

[ltdann]

Yes it did look like that. I have seen at least two photos of the XF6F-5 being tested by Grumman with this canopy. I used one in the Hellcat Walk Around.