My favourite tale about the F6F happened in the mid 1950's when a unmanned QF6F drone lost contact with remote control, kept flying on its own and even evaded (then brand new) two F-89 Scorpion jet sent to shoot it down.
Just got done arguing with people about the f4u corsair they said was the best.i said no it was hard to fly lousy carrier plane. If it wasn't for boyington you probably never here about it.the hellcat was the best fighter of ww2 the p51 was the best bomber escort numbers tell the story
When people see these machines of war flying gracefully around the sky people don't realise those planes are killers and still could do the job they are designed to do
I was privileged to know and recreate with one of the Hellcat Aces from the Randolph (also the Hornet). Lt. J G Dan Carmichael of Columbus, Ohio was a true hero of the Greatest Generation. You might be interested in his obituary in the Columbus Dispatch. He lived an amazing 91 years.
I am guessing that Zero has an American P&W engine. I am only aware of one Zero flying with original Japanese type engine. The A6M was introduced in 1940 and was revolutionary for its range, speed, maneuverability, and use of 20MM cannons to be used in its interceptor role against multi-engine bombers. Technology changed fast in the 40s and an airplane introduced in 1940 could not expect to be as good as a plane introduced in 1942. The A6M was still a dangerous plane even late in the war but Japan did not have enough competent pilots at that point to give any design a better than even chance.
One of my uncles flew a Hellcat in WW2. He was a certified ace with 6 or 8 kills in the Pacific theater until he was shot down. He was picked up hours later by a US Navy ship.
True story - I was on a flight line at an airshow as part of a documentary crew and the WWII warbirds all started to turn props as we were wrapping up an interview. All the aircraft around us were packed in pretty right and there was about 30 aircraft around us on the apron winding up and kicking into life. Cement and tarmac apron and you could feel it in your feet and absolutely in your chest. The noise and the smoke and the smell hitting the senses all at once.
Zero pilots got a rude awakening when the Hellcat showed up. They thought they were Wildcats and that the pilots were green newbies who didn't know any better than to follow them up into a steep climb. But it didn't end well for the Zero pilots. Instead lining up an easy kill on a stalled Wildcat fluttering like a duck, the last thing they saw before they were vaporized was the flash of the Hellcat's 50 cal's, courtesy of its 2,000 HP double wasp engine.
@@nahualollin61 Oh, you mean like the time when Capt. Jesse Folmar flying a F4U Corsair from VMA-312 was able to destroy one of two MiG-15s that had bounced both him and his wingman?😂
More wing surface area than the P-38 lightning,,Corsair,and P-47 Thunderbolt...one bad ass bitch to many duties and to many BRUTAL numbers to list. Structurally designed to take loads of gunfire and still fly, and lands Greatly on a Aircraft Carrier Deemed the Big Blu Blanket over The Pacific
Rear Admiral Edward "Whitey" Feightner 98 yrs old ace. I visit him weekly he loves to watch RU-vid videos I bring to him old footage of his days on the Big E and behind his cockpit of the his Hellcat . God bless him !
The Hellcat was designed and built for one purpose only...to shoot down Zeros and any other plane the Japanese were foolish enough to put in the air! I believe the Hellcat is credited with over 5000 aerial kills alone. It wasn’t the prettiest, it wasn’t the fastest, and it wasn’t glamorous. She was a killer. David McCampbell, Navy ace of aces, said it was the best airplane he ever flew. Great power, extremely manoeuvrable, lethal firepower, tough as nails and very easy to land on carriers. A specific plane for a specific role. Well done, old girl🇺🇸⚓️🇺🇸
Hellcat had plenty of armor for the 7 mm machine guns of the Zero. My father was duty officer for Hellcat-flying VF-81 on the Wasp (CV-18) so I've read about these all my life. And I've come to the conclusion that they were built for OJT service, allowing rookie fighter pilots a chance to learn aerial combat. They were loaded with 1" armor.
jockellis So true my dad hit by flak over Truk. When he landed back on the Essex he was missing part of wing and two cylinders. I took him to a airshow and he sat and talked to the pilot of a f4f wildcat for two hours. Both were in there late 80's.
@@hammerofdavey 60 rounds per gun for the 20mm, versus 500 rounds each for the 7.7mm (two of each gun on a plane). You better be darn sure of your shot before expensing that precious 20mm!
4 Carmybel agree I’ve always been into cars because their lines and now recently I’ve got into planes and I admire their history and their lines even tho I won’t ever own one I do own a couple 1/48 scale models I’ve built and I can admire those
The pivot of 90 degrees to airstream of gear doors are a brief air brake that would tend to nose her down. Tail wheel unlocks for differential wheel brake maneuvers. Lock tail wheel in straight castor angle for take off roll. Wing fold reduced her to 24 foot for storage. The slight prop to deck clearance required three point landing attitude besides your trying to grab arresting rope w tail hook. The Zero’s wing tip fold required no heavy mechanism but only reduced her enough for elevator clearance. And less deck space in storage. Lack of self sealing fuel tanks and no armor plate meant any hits were pretty much terminal.
Even though the F6F couldn't top 400 mph it was still faster than the Zero and could turn with it. As pointed out below it had a high kill ratio. It may have been the safest fighter of WWII.
Due to losses and lack of training mid to late war, the Imperial Japanese Navy AF was a shadow of its former self, yet in the hands of a capable pilot the Zero in all its forms was still a formidable dog fighter.
Alex Williamson even in a hellcat the hell car can match in a turning fight if skilled but it’s a rare most of the time hellcat pilots prefer to either out dive the Zero or fight head on or attack from ambush positions because many US pilots respect the hell out of the Zero despite having a more technological advantage also the Zero is more maneuverable then the hellcat due to being light and the hellcat is still heavy and too fast
Thanks for this info Minibull037, I never thought of this, I watch video's on this site of aeroplanes starting up in America and the pilot's always shouts "Clear Prop", I must admit I have not noticed this before when watching other aircraft from other countries starting up, must be more vigilant in future. Thanks again.
...and a ZERO TOO!,...interesting that the camouflage was on the prop spinner too. Makes for a cool illusion but not sure the Japanese ever did that. Prop spinner color was used to signify which squadron the aircraft belonged to, I believe.
modeler308 I only know the Kaga and Akagi Zeros because the Akagi Zero has one red stripe while the Kaga has two red stripes the other Japanese carries have different stripes like blue or bright white while the Japanese Army Zeroes have none and just a green color
You bet! I read in Ted Lawson's book "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" that one of the boys on the Hornet's flight deck had his arm clipped off by one of the B-25 props when they were preparing to take off for the Doolittle raid. Lawson was one of the pilots. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened occasionally on every navy's carriers.
You're always hearing of all the other WWII fighters, except the one they should be talking about the most. The Hellcat, the highest kill to loss ratio in the entire war, and the most planes downed then all others combined in the Pacific theater.
What is the function of the guy wagging his index finger? I’m pretty sure the pilot can see if he’s getting prop rotation. And better yet he’s actually pointing to the engine being started. Are there options on single engine fighters???
Watching the Hellcat start up, makes me wonder if these ground crew guys took the time to walk the propellers thru and clear the cylinders? The Radial engines have their own qwerks, in terms of maintenance.
@@tyvernoverlord5363 Sorry mate not true......thats why American pilots were told never to get into a dogfight with the zero......it has been proven that the zero could out turn almost anything in the sky.You are correct about the toughness of the big American fighter and it could in theory survive a dogfight with the zero but not recommended as the zero was much more nimble. Got to be greatful for the Hellcat though....it changed the tide of the war in the pacific.
@@neilgutteridge6405 You might be thinking of the woefully outclassed F2A Buffalo(so much so that the buffalo was nixed after midway), P36 Hawk, F4F Wildcat, and P40 Warhawk. Interestingly the P39 Aircobra nearly matched the Zero in capability. The word to not outright dog fight it came from the AVG(Flying Tigers) do to their experience in smashing zeros over china. From '38 on America started loving new dog fighting regime: "energy" fighting. He who is quicker and pulls more g's and sustains them in the turn along with deft maneuvering is the killing victor of the fight. Why do you think this facet has been the belief since 1945 into the fighter age of the 21st century? Because it's reality. The P38 had innumerable aces(100+) and was the paragon of american "energy" fighting, it had a VERY lively and succesful career as the "twinned-boom terror", the bane of the Japanese Naval Airforces; and was the instrument of choice in the plan to kill Yamamoto. From 12 '42 to VJ day it was the principle air superiority fighter of choice. The 13:1 Kill ratio of the F6F Hellcat alone should alone prove to you that it was a zero killer. The GREAT MARIANAS *TURKEY SHOOT* should itself be proof that your doubt is misplaced. The fact that the Akutan Zero was a bit of a revelation in Grumman's development team should tell you something of how dedicated America was in destroying the ever holy god status of the zero's reign in the skies should be another clue. That everything changed for the USN after 1943 most definitely should have peculated your senses. The fact that 305 cadets became enshrined as kings of the sky over the zero in only 2 years should be another. The Hellcat was god in all but name in relation to the zero's jesus. It was THE superior plane. The zero mod 52 was the only thing a hellcat pilot had to concentrate over not dying from, and yet due to tactics and energy the mod 52 became a mere mosquito; an annoyance to be destroyed. The navy decided to gift select squadrons of their "gods" with with god gear of radar, just to make it even harder for the zero's lifetime. The N1K was the only true opponent worthy of the hellcat, but it was wasn't a kingslayer; but a kingmaker. The P-51, the plane I think most every American post war agrees would be the piston plane of god's personal choice. It had superior range, could get a zero to gtfo a bomber formation, could handedly swipe the zero away; and do everything but make julian fries. The Mustang was birthed by the fathers of energy fight theory; heavy, steady, fast, and rearing to kill. So iconic was the thoroughbred that it was mistakenly id'd as the kwaii little ki-61. The actual performance of the Spitfire tor Mustang evened out, but the range of the skypony was frankly: superior. German pilots thought the American dream machine wasn't too op to handle, documentation provides a large roflmao; especially given that the P-51 fighter force was ordered to hunt, find, search, and -destroy- murderize the luftwaffe on the ground and sky. So, being the warbird that cucked germany out of its masculinity and genocidal ways; what do you think happend to the zero, produced by the country we nuked the reality out of? Of course the caveat is that the Alicorn in reality went through late '44 to VJ in a op tempo that could be compared to a summer's stroll. The F4U, the fucka u too!, the fame of the infamous Black Sheep Squadron. A second placing k/d of 11:1, the marines and the navy(though begrudgingly) loved and adored the pirate king making machine. Despite it being the original "widow maker", rest easy members of the V-22 and AV-8B communities, it was found to be a nicely handling plane suitable to the rigers of naval carrier warfare. Fighter Command Pacific was concerned with parts availability for a time, these issues turned out to be much of nothing. The marines got their crayon eating grubblets on the bird and decided that zeros were better than crayons, at least in 1942 they were. The saint val's massacre was a bit of a revelation; the marines learned that the swash buckling hero of the pacific, did indeed absolutely not no thank you ma'am perform the good deed of escorting big bertha and her beautiful court; he liked being a bad boy, and the roid rage infused minds of marine aviation command concurred, yes: we kill and we only kill; thus they set their eyes for the meanest baddest proudest son of a bitch in the sky: the zero, and the showdown was; apocalyptic. In may '43 the lord of the skies proclaimed to the empire that their queenly machine: the zero; was the bandog's b slice, and he liked doing her openly and thoroughly rough on the beach. The bad boy did confirm his greaser group of vitamin c deficient posse died less than anybody. For these reasons the corsair is the bulldog of the pacific. The P-47 thunder-b, the fatest thing in all the land to be graced with the saintly proscribed the epithet of fighter. The armored flying pork loin should've been a blood bank for the mosquito swarm of zero's, but god has a particular sense of humor. Boom-n'-zoom was the name to the zeus queen's claim to fame; let's be honest this thing can't even energy fight, and the army air corp agreed with reality at least this once; just this once. The single seated big girthy chode in the sky called a fighter saw a measly amount of air to air against zeros; but it proved that the cushion does indeed, do the pushin'. The try hard edition of the flying sky fat acceptance movement, the P-47N really arrived too late to do what its chunkier older brothers had done. Here's were the zero fails as a fighter... -No armor plating -Thin skinned -Pilot training was inadequate for the type of war the pacific theater became -At speed the canopy was difficult to egress from while bailing out -Highly susceptible to catching fire -Duralumin isn't the best aluminum alloy type to make your fighters with -The Sakae engine wasn't really well suited to combating mid and late war american fighters and failed to perform -Unprotected fuel tanks -Limited fuel for a frontline warbird -At speed it was hard to control and proved difficult to maneuver -Engine carburetor had the same issue as the Spitfire -American fighter schools and rotating seasoned vets through to teach nuggets, tactics, and the akutan zero being recovered and both static and ground tested -A mod 52 was captured and new insights were gained -The deadly 20mm's were low velocity short ranged snub guns -Duralumin is susceptable to the environment, american early 7075 wasn't -.50BMG went through it like a body heated knife through thawed butter -The flying tiger's boom-n'-zoom tactics mauled the zero; especially when the second generation fighters came into play in '43 -The zero was made to be all zip and nimble; but the second gen "energy" fighters of the USAAC, USMC, and USN ran the zero ragged -They were built for over-matching "western" planes of the same decade, but couldn't hold a hope to the american fighters from '42 onward -Its prowess, is ill gained and unearned; the american military treated it like a mythological spaceship and after pearl this largely went away; why? because after 12/7/41 it was a very *known* entity -Radio comms were nonexistant -After Midway, the zero became lunch for every competent american in the sky...
@@neilgutteridge6405 true same with the corsair we had no plane that could turn inside a zero.if the zero had better fuel tanks and some armor we would of had are hands full.wonder how the spitfire would of faired
This is just a question but can someone tell why there is a need for a guy to stand at the side of an aeroplane pointing at the propeller with one hand and twirling his finger in the air with the other looking at the pilot, surly the pilot can see the propeller rotating from inside the cockpit, after all he's the one in control of fuel, ignition and start-up button!!!.
Phil Matthews Clearance for prop to turn, eyes on the ground for any leaks or fires that go unsighted, etc. Also anything else that may be happening, he is the guy to communicate with the pilot.
If he was priming to much fuel would be pouring out from the over flow and too much in the cylinders would cause an exhaust fire this is how they are at start up seen it loads of times on many different types of radial they can be hard to start no engine management systems on these.
I don’t understand why so many pilots seems to have trouble starting these motors. There’s obviously something that I personally don’t know, so if anybody could help me understand, I’d greatly appreciate the information.
For these two babies, read "My Harley and my Honda". Rule 1. DO NOT engage a zero in a dogfight. You will lose! Out gun it, out climb it, and out dive it. You stand a chance then.
Maintaining momentum is rule number 1 of dogfighting and the Hellcat was better at it than any Zero. The Zero was light but had no power. Wildcats were just too heavy and weak vs the Zero at the start of the war. Hellcat turned the tables.
Benters-You're thinking of the wildcat. The hellcat was superior to the zero in nearly every way. Hell, that was pretty much the design specifications given to Grumman for it haha. Beat the zero in every way.
How long was this plane sitting? My 85 Toyota sat for a year while i was living in Asia. Put a can of "Stable" in the tank before leaving. When i returned i shot some starter fluid in the carb after hooking up my battery. Started in a few cranks! My FI Triumph motorcycle was even faster. Drained the fuel system (tank + floats) before leaving (sitting gas gums up everything). Put fresh gas in the tank, filled the floats with gas and cranked her over. A minute of spark and boom she was purring like a 🐈 kitten.😲As the old saying goes....an Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure. Sitting gas for more than a month will turn to thick honey and gum up your fuel system. You'd have to flush out all that sludge to get your motor running. Horrible job!
I wonder if they were this hard to start and keep running during the war. I could see where that might have been a problem if they needed to get up in the air in a hurry...
They were probably both cold soaked and aren't run as often as they would have been so probably they are a little harder to start than otherwise - but it's also that there's a technique to starting these quickly and on the first try.. I don't like the fuelling on the Grumman at first - some cylinders were rich, some were lean and some couldn't decide - either that or some of the plugs were fouled but the old girl wasn't happy.
