HISTORY
Photo: NHHC
FM-2 WILDCAT
“FM” as
“fine modification“
Text: Richard Plos
The second production FM-2, BuNo. 15953, during flight tests.
The Wildcat was the first single-wing fighter aircraft produced by Grumman
for active service. It bore the main burden of battles in the Pacific from the
attack on Pearl Harbor until around February 1943, when the significantly more
powerful F4U-1 Corsair and Wildcat’s direct successor, the F6F Hellcat, entered
the scene. It was expected that the days of the Wildcat would be numbered
with the arrival of these new powerful beasts, but the opposite turned out to be
true. Thanks to the highly modernized version, FM-2, the Wildcat continued to
participate in combat operations almost until the end of the war.
Due to the Navy’s dissatisfaction with the
Corsair’s landing characteristics on aircraft
carrier decks, the Hellcat became the Navy’s
main fighter type until the second half of 1944,
when the Navy accepted the improved Corsairs
that were previously serving with the USMC
units. Both types were powered by the big and
exceptionally powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800
Double Wasp engine, an eighteen-cylinder,
double-row engine, which designers decided to
install into quite volumious airframe. In June 1943,
squadrons equipped with the F4F-4 Wildcats still
represented a significant combat force, and by
6
INFO Eduard
that time, a version that aimed to address several
issues of its predecessor at once, was already in
production.
The Successor Worse Than Its Predecessor
The F4F-4 represented the worst-performing
version among all the Wildcat variants. The
aircraft, burdened with an additional pair of
machine guns and with significantly reduced
ammunition per barrel compared to the F4F-3,
required around 50 minutes to climb to an altitude
that would allow it to attack Japanese bombers
flying at about 20,000 ft. Moreover, with only 250
rounds of ammunition per gun, the pilots found
themselves facing a shortage of ammo even in
relatively short dogfights.
It became clear early on that the F4F-4
version was not a wise step, but by mid-1942,
when the F4F-4 was being introduced into
service, Grumman was fully occupied with the
development of the Hellcat, as well as the mass
production of Wildcats, Avengers, Ducks, and
Widgeons. They simply did not have the capacity
for further development of a type that was
supposed to be replaced soon. The preparations
for Hellcat production had the highest priority,
August 2023