What's So Special About The Bearcat?

[Nashwan]

I often see the Bearcat touted as the ultimate fighter built during WW2, but the performance figures I've been able to find don't look that special.
For instance I once read that the plane climbed so well pilots were liable to get the bends from the drop in pressure, yet the climbrates I've seen are around 4500 fpm, which isn't that good by the standards of other late war planes.
Can someone post the actuall figures and give me an idea of why the plane was so good?

[juzz]

It was the first US fighter that could actually climb faster than a housebrick with a helium-filled party balloon attached to it, thats why.  

[StSanta]

Nash: 4.5k/m is better than the G10, which is the current best grabber up to 25k.

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StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"

[juzz]

382mph at S/L, 421mph at 19,700ft. Obviously the Bearcat is a low-altitude fighter. It would match the Me 109G-10 in climb at low altitudes, but the Messerschmitt would become superior as altitude increased.

Really fast climbrate is a Spit 9 with "Basta". Over 5500fpm...  

[minus]

Dont  Forget the Bearcat  was inspired from the late FW 190 !!!!!!!!

[-lazs-]

yeah minus just like a new Corvette was inspired by the Model T Ford.   The difference between a 190 and a Bearcat is infinitely greater than the difference between a Hellcat and a Bearcat.   On the one hand you have one offhand statement by one engineer and on the other you have the actual planes to look at.   You can see the clear evolution of the Hellcat in the Bearcat.  

The Bearcat would be our best low to mid (everything in AH) fighter.   300 of them were issued and in service (on carriers) before the end of the war.   If the U.S. were doing as badly as the LW was for most of the war then they would have had to have been issued a year earlier and, being straffed at their airbases or carriers....."seen combat".  

A 190 pilot being met with the "dawn soopreeze" from carrier based Bearcats would take very little comfort in the fact that an engineer had given a nod to the 190.  
lazs


[This message has been edited by -lazs- (edited 10-29-2000).]

[minus]

sory man but is it 100% sure bearcat was created after the 190 capture studies yes is it a evolution but the inspiration come from 190

[eddiek]

Bearcat copied or inspired by a FW?
Oh brother................

check out this link and see what was so special about ALL the Grumman birds:      http://home.att.net/~C.C.Jordan/Grumman.html


Can't ya just see the Spit pilots faces when the Hellcat hits the arena?  Read that part about the F6F turning with the Spits...uh oh.......salivating already........  !!!

[This message has been edited by eddiek (edited 10-29-2000).]

[This message has been edited by eddiek (edited 10-29-2000).]

[GRUNHERZ]

Hi

Actually all that about the Bearcat being based on the 190 is true. A Grumman designer who was reviewing one of the captured A5s was so impressed he said something like this,
" if we put an R2800 in that thing we would have a world beater", and the Bearcat was born. Anyway(here goes one of GRUNHERZ's useless pilots accounts) the Bearcat was one hell of a plane. For example late in 1945 one of the Bearcat squadrons was flying around the west coast and they met up with a group of P38s at some airfield. They bet the Bearcat could take off, raise gear and loop all before the 38s wheels rose off the runway. Well the bearcat guys won the bet and the guy actually did 2 loops before the 38 was airborne.

thanks GRUNHERZ

[Westy]

 lol. How do you manage to still do this? Take a "comment" and draw the conclusion
from the comment, " if we put an R2800 in that thing we would have a world beater", that the F8F was based on the 190?

 You are so star struck by anything flown by the Luftwaffe it's literally hysterical. Yes Grumman test pilot flew the captured 190 in Britain. But if you see the FW-190-A5 as the daddy of the F8F then the FW-190 was itself a copy of the F4F and F6F.

 Here: This you can see <cough> (snicker) <cough> the resemblance toi the 190-A (it's in there somewhere. trust me. Even Grunherz implied it!):

 

 The F8F was designed as a shipboard air superiority fighter/interceptor. The habit was to install the most powerful engine on new designs, not the other way around. "When planning a replacement for their successful F6F Hellcat carrier fighter Grumman chose to build as lightweight a design as possible around the most reliable large radial engine."  and   "The Bearcat was designed as an interceptor fighter, with emphasis placed on excellent maneuverability, good low-level performance, and a high rate of climb. It used the same engine as it's predecessor the Hellcat, but being smaller and 20% lighter, had a 30% better climb rate than the Hellcat. It's first flight was in August 1944, and while the first squadron of Bearcats was heading for the Pacific, the war ended before this excellent fighter could see operational use."


 This habit of seeing in everything some German engineering is getting old. As well as the habit of thinking every the Germans had was the best, the fastest and most advance.

  -Westy

[Hooligan]

Nashwan:

It hasn't been mentioned yet so I will.  The bearcat was a very maneuverable aircraft.  Excellent speed, climb and quick turning make should make it a nasty arena plane.

Hooligan

[M.C.202]

Westy said
> Here: This you can see <cough> (snicker) <cough> the resemblance to the 190-A>
>(it's in there somewhere. trust me. Even Grunherz implied it!):


I see more Macchi M.C.200 there than FW 190. :-)

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M.C.202
Dino in Reno

[GRUNHERZ]

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[This message has been edited by GRUNHERZ (edited 10-29-2000).]

[GRUNHERZ]

Hi

Westy IIRC the story goes something like this. The grumman designer flew the 190 and was very impressed with its general flying abilities. He did say " if we put an R2800 in in this thing we would have a world beater". Then he went back to US and started working on getting the bearcat designed. I dont understand why you are so defensive on this point, thats just what happend.  Again I didnt say it the gruman designer did.  

thanks GRUNHERZ

[Westy]

Grunherz, this is what you said, "Actually all that about the Bearcat being based on the 190 is true."  

 Well, you were wrong. And the whole point of my post was to show evidence and facts to the contrary.

-Westy