Aerials on early Grumman F6F-3

[shepsair]

Hi all,

After looking at a lot of wartime photos I am trying to establish why the Hellcats I am looking at have no aerial mast. I have never seen any of the forward slanting ones. Nearly everyone Hellcat with VF-38 in fall 1943 had no aerial mast behind the cockpit. Just seemd to go straight into the fuselage.

I dont know why it changed or when it changed.

Forward - seems to be on early/prototypes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F6F-3 ... a_1943.jpg

VF-33 (also VF-38 and VF-40) . No large aerial. Just a small whip one on top.
http://ww2db.com/images/51160b8ad55b8.jpg
http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... r&start=90
http://www.archaehistoria.org/index.php ... Itemid=102

With mast. Common fitting later.
http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=18170

I assume all Hellcats had standard radio fittings. There was no other variations.

Trying to establish whether BuNo25910 would have had one.

regards

MS

[Randy Wilson]

According to sources I have looked at, the first 909 or so F6F-3s had the forward slanted mast just aft of the canopy and later ones had the straight mast, as did the F6F-5. The mast was used to support a wire antenna to the shorter mast on the vertical fin. Perhaps some units were fitted with a different, higher frequency radio set that did not need the wire antenna is all I can suggest. Hopefully someone more into US WWII aircraft radios can offer more help. All the best.

Randy

[Taigh Ramey]

Randy hit it on the head. Early on communication was through high frequency (HF) radios that used long wire antennas. The angled mast was simply supposed to hold up the wire. I think it was angled to get a few extra inches of wire which could have been critical for signal propagation.

later in the war HF communication gave way to Very High Frequency (VHF) which worked better for clear and crisp communication but was a bit more limited in range. The VHF gear used a mast antenna typically the AN-104 often called the ax handle. This is the straight mast seen in your link. This antenna could also be used as a support for long wire antennas (with insulators) as many systems had VHF and HF capabilities.

The small whip antenna you mentioned were for Identification Friend or Foe (IFF). IFF was a radio system used to interrogate and respond to each other or to ground/waterborne stations giving the code of the day. Correct code=friendly. No code or the incorrect code and you might be having a real bad day.

The IFF antennas were very small early on and hard to spot in old photos but later in the war were almost as long as the VHF antennas and more visible as can be seen in your linked shot.

There are exceptions to the antennas mentioned above meaning there were other systems that used similar looking antennas for jamming and other countermeasures but the above are the most common ones found on wartime aircraft.

I hope this helps,

Taigh