Bearcat got good reviews in limited use with Corps

[thedrifter]

December 18, 2006
The Lore of the Corps
Bearcat got good reviews in limited use with Corps

By Robert F. Dorr
Special to the Times

A fighter plane that was much loved in the Navy made only a cameo appearance in the Marine Corps but won the admiration of leatherneck pilots, as well.

The Grumman F8F Bearcat was “the ultimate propeller-driven fighter,” said retired Col. John Geuss, who flew the aircraft in a joint Navy-Marine Reserve squadron. “It was a joy to fly,” he said.

The Bearcat was a cousin of the well-known F6F Hellcat and excelled in air-to-air action. However, the plane was less effective in the air-to-ground mission deemed so important to Marines.

Navy Bearcats were on carrier decks en route to the Pacific when World War II ended, but no Bearcat saw combat in American hands. By the time the Korean War arrived, the emphasis was on air-to-ground combat, and Marine squadrons had plenty of F4U-4 Corsairs, which could carry more ordnance.

As a product of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company in Long Island, N.Y., the Bearcat was the logical successor to the Hellcat, which turned the tide against the vaunted Japanese Zero during the war in the Pacific. When the prototype XF8F-1 made its initial flight Aug. 21, 1944, many thought the fighter eventually would face the Zero in the expected invasion of the Japanese home islands.

The Bearcat was about 20 percent lighter than the Hellcat and used a more powerful engine. It was credited with a maximum speed of 421 miles per hour and armed with four .50-caliber machine guns.

While the war was going on, the Navy ordered 2,023 F8F-1 models, the first of which reached a squadron in May 1945. Plans for an F8M-1 version to be manufactured by General Motors never materialized, and the number of Bearcats ended up being 1,266 — 765 F8F-1s; 100 F8F-1Bs with four 20mm cannons; 36 F8F-1N night fighters; 293 F8F-2s with redesigned engine cowling and taller tail fin; 12 F8F-2N night fighters; and 60 F8F-2P reconnaissance aircraft with cameras and only two 20mm cannons.

Marine test pilots flew the F8F during early evaluation tests at Patuxent River, Md. Leathernecks also flew the F8F on exchange tours in Navy squadrons, in the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team and — in later years — in Navy-Marine Air Reserve units. However, no F8F Bearcat squadron was formed in the Marine Corps.

Only a few Bearcats ever had the word “Marines” painted on the fuselage. About a dozen F8F-2 models were used during the 1950s at Quantico, Va., where their apparent role was an instructional one for mechanics. A smaller number apparently pulled similar duty at Marine Corps Air Stations Cherry Point, N.C., and El Toro, Calif.

“It was a stellar performer,” Geuss said. “With no armament or ammunition and maybe a 20-knot tailwind, you actually get off the runway in less than 300 feet.” Geuss remembers the Bearcat as being “about average in terms of comfort in the cockpit” but “like a skyrocket in terms of handling.”

Bearcats served in Southeast Asia with the French and Thai air forces and saw combat in Indochina in French hands. Today, about a dozen civilian-owned Bearcats appear regularly at air shows.

Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He can be reached at robert.f.dorr@cox.net.

Ellie

[corsairboss]

Enjoy, the Bearcat was the Hot Rod of the "Cat Family".