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

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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