The Navy saw the need for night fighters and started the Project Affirm program in early 1942, originally with Corsairs equipped with primitive AI (Air Interception) radar sets built by MIT engineers. In 1943, the Hellcat emerged as the preferred night fighter because of its easier landing characteristics and greater stability as a gun platform. The F6F-3E, converted in the field at MCAS Quonset Point, was the first Hellcat night fighter, using the AI radar, red cockpit lighting (to preserve the pilot's night vision), and without an easily scratched Plexiglass windscreen fairing. Eighteen F6F-3E's were built. (On November 26, 1943, Butch O'Hare, flying an unmodified F6F-3 on a night mission with a TBF Avenger, disappeared over the Gilberts.

Next came the F6F-3N, which was the full-spec night-fighter variant, with AN/APS-6 radar. The AN/APS-6 was essentially an AN/APS-4 with a simplified display system that eliminated the need for a separate operator. Fighter pilots were a bit leery of the radar-equipped Hellcat at first, since they feared the pod would affect handling, and in fact it cut top speed by about 32 KPH (20 MPH).
205 of these built by the Grumman factory. The F6F-3N employed an improved radar, the APS-6. Installed in a bulbous pod on the starboard wing, the APS-6 was simple to operate (only six knobs), had a range of five miles, and weighed 250 pounds. It featured a double-dot system that displayed a shadow blip to the right of the true blip; this secondary blip showed the target's altitude relative to the F6F. The -3E's and -3N's deployed to the carriers in the Pacific in early 1944, but were difficult to integrate into carrier operations, as they essentially would have required round-the-clock duty by launch and recovery crews. Nonetheless, three Hellcat-equipped night squadrons (VF(N)-76, VF(N)-77, and VF(N)-78) served in the Pacific in 1944.

The F6F-5 went into service just as the Hellcat accomplished its greatest feat of arms: the Marianas Turkey Shoot. On 19 June 1944, US Navy fighters protecting the US invasion of the Marianas island chain were challenged by swarms of Imperial Japanese Navy Zeroes. The Americans claimed 350 kills to a loss of 30 of their own aircraft. It was all but the end of Imperial Japanese Navy air power, now suppressed by what the US Navy called the "Big Blue Blanket" of naval air power.

The last of 7,870 F6F-5s was rolled out in November 1945. As with the F6F-3, production included a night-fighter variant, the "F6F-5N" with AN/APS-6 radar, making up 1,435 of the total.

The Hellcat no doubt came as a nasty surprise to Japanese pilots, since it looked enough like a Wildcat to be confused for one at a distance, but was a substantially more dangerous adversary, every bit as tough as the Wildcat but faster and more heavily armed. It was still no match for the Zero in terms of agility and couldn't outclimb the A6M, but the Hellcat could almost always escape by going into a dive. Any competent Hellcat pilot who understood his machine's advantages and the Zeke's weaknesses had the upper hand.

GRUMMAN F6F-5 HELLCAT:
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spec metric english
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wingspan 13.06 meters 42 feet 10 inches
wing area 31.03 sq_meters 334 sq_feet
length 10.24 meters 33 feet 7 inches
height 3.99 meters 13 feet 1 inch

empty weight 4,190 kilograms 9,238 pounds
normal loaded weight 6,990 kilograms 15,415 pounds

max speed at altitude 610 KPH 380 MPH / 330 KT
service ceiling 11,370 meters 37,300 feet
range 1,520 kilometers 945 MI / 820 NMI







































Regards Duggy.