Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Phantom121 on September 07, 2001, 04:37:00 PM
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Found this site -http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/hist-ac/f6f-5.pdf
Shows 1 centerline tank or 2k bomb
and armament as 6x50 or 2x20 and 4x50
check it out.
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Only the night fighter models had the 2 20mm M2 cannon and 4 .50 cal Brownings.
The FM for the NF model would be somewhat different.
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hehehe 2 20m's and 4 50's would make the kitty ROAR!!!!! Bring it in to AH!!!
Mav :D
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Now ya mention it... I too think I have seen an egg on that centreline station...
Too lazy to go upstairs and dig out book..
SKurj
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It also says the Hellcat could carry a single Mk 13 torpedo or 11.75" rocket on the centreline... ;)
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"could"!!1 torp never passed the testing stage...
F6 did have dive brakes of a sort though +) The gear wouldn't lock above 130mph so pilots would drop the gear for dive bombing.
Is it really accurate in an F4u that you would rip yer dive brakes off in a dive?
SKurj
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Skurj,
I have read that you could drop the brakes at any speed in an F4U and it would just cause buffeting. I have never read of anybody loosing the brakes in a dive or otherwise.
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Ok F4UDOA should we lobby to have undamageable gear in Aces?
I am sick of ripping gear in a throttle off dive
SKurj
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In the case of both the F4U and F6F, the main landing gear acted as an airbrake for more accurate divebombing. (On the F4U The main doors closed after gear extension and tail wheel remained retracted when the gear was lowered to the airbrake detent via the gear handle. Losing the "airbrakes" in an F4U would mean losing the main mounts not simply the little door that is bolted directly to the mounts with two clamps.)
Getting back on topic, how much was the Hellcat actually used for mud moving? Were there any campaigns where they had a significant attack role?
MiG
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Hellcats were used extensively in mud moving. In several books, it is mentioned that they carried bombs (and rockets when the F6F-5 became available) in many of the campaigns from mid to late 1944 to the end of the war. This became even more widespread when the fighter compliment of the carriers was increased to 70+ fighters in the air group (the Wasp's Air Group 81 had 127 fighters - 91 Hellcats and 36 Corsairs). These large fighter squadons replaced most, if not all, of the divebomber squads on some ships. This created a nightmare of admin duties for the FitRon CO's, so the navy split the large fighter squads into VF (fighting) and VBF (fighter-bomber) components. The only real difference between the two was the designation, as they performed the same missions and often used the same planes.
This designation split was done in January of 1945 (I believe, not exactly sure, too lazy to look it up). Thus, this system was in use during the major raids on the Japanese home islands, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. With the divebombers relegated to a smaller role, and the Tordonut squads too, much of the striking power of the Fast Carrier Task Force had to be performed by the F6F's and F4U's.
Hope this answers your question.
-math