Grumman F7F Tigercat

In the same class with the North American F-82 Twin Mustang -- although of more conventional design -- the Grumman F7F Tigercat was a heavy multirole fighter which was developed for the US Navy during 1941 and which appeared in prototype in December 1943. The F7F broke completely away from the Grumman tradition and was a twin-engine aircraft with medium wing and a tricycle landing gear, being the first of its kind to see carrier-borne service with the Navy. It was exceptionally agile, fast and powerful.

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The first production version, the F7F-1, was ordered at the beginning of 1944 and 34 were built, but the Tigercat was beset by operational problems which led to changes being made in the specifications. Production then concentrated on a two-seat night fighter variant, the F7F-2N, of which 65 were built, and then in 1945 reverted to a single-seat version, the F7F-3, of which 189 were built. However, the change was too late to go into service before the end of World War II.

In 1946 the assembly lines built another 60 F7F-3Ns and 13 F7F-4Ns; both models in the night fighter configuration for service with the Marine Corps. But, the Tigercat's operational career also came to an end after the first stages of the Korean War.

Hi Bob, .... One of them came on the Sanford Naval Air Station where I was stationed shortly before I was discharged. We were curious wanting to take a look at it but loudspeakers on the hanger warned us to stay away from it.

The props had a 13 foot arc, it had a nose landing gear and the props cleared the ground only 7 inches. It was a night fighter, had 20mm guns on each side of the nose and three 50 caliber guns in each wing. It was obsolete by the time it came off the assembly line because the jets had emerged and took over. The pilot was there only a short time and when he got back in the plane, he didn't even go to the runway but took off from a taxi strip. As soon as he cleared the ground he turned the nose straight up like a homesick angel and was soon out of sight. You can read more detail by browsing ... and I think you will be impressed with it's description etc. Take care and God bless.

Your friend,

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