Vintage Military Aviation Reviews - Grumman F7F Tigercat

My inaugural review video of WWII and post-WWII piston-engine'd fighter aircraft. First of my new series.

This is my first attempt, so please bear with me on the crappy quality and stage presence :-P

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Thumbnail photo credit Michael Hux. Taken at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.

**DISCLAIMER: This series was NOT created for the purpose of monetary benefit. This series is merely an informative vlog for the casual viewer.**

After subscribing, show some love to the creators of the F7F Tigercat clips in this film:

[danielmocsny]

In hindsight it would have been genius for Grumman to build a land-based version for the USAAF to use in the European Theater. Without all the problems relating to making it work on aircraft carriers, the F7F could hypothetically have been in service about as soon as the P-47 was (which used the same engine as we all know). The F7F could have been the long-range escort fighter needed to prevent the huge bomber losses in deep penetration raids over Germany in 1943. Or the F7F could have carried the bombs itself while being much harder to shoot down, permitting higher sortie rates. (After the heavy bomber raids with so many losses and so many returning bombers shot up, bomber groups took a long time to rebuild for the next mission.) The F7F could have done most things the de Havilland Mosquito did, but with more durability and higher speed. It seems like a missed opportunity to me. Maybe building enough of them early enough would have allowed D-Day to happen sooner (since destroying the Luftwaffe was a pre-condition for invasion that ended up having to wait for the improved Merlin-powered P-51) so the British and Americans could have advanced farther into Germany and improved the Western geopolitical position before the Cold War. I guess inter-service rivalry and the mistaken assumption that "the bomber will always get through" limited the thinking early in the war. A related question is why Lockheed never tried building a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp-powered version of the P-38 Lightning.

[davy]

Tigercat is my favorite too....best sounding plane ever....you can't understand until your hear one for yourself.

[MichaelHux]

Truth...I'm gonna need to get an airduster can, like you would use for a keyboard.

[danielblythe]

Drop those socially demeaning whispers, etc. . Then may have good potential here. The F7F-2N was deployed into war zone before war's end.

[hittrewweuy]

You should invest in a proper microphone, you sound like talking inside a bottle 😂