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American WWII's aircraft
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Grumman F4F Wildcat
The Wildcat was the main shipboard fighter when the US entered WWII. The F4F was barrel-shaped, with angular wingtips and rudder and a narrow-track undercarriage. The Mitsubishi A6M outperformed it, but the F4F was well-armed and reliable, and was a natural shipboard aircraft, probably easier to land on a carrier deck than on land. It set the reputation of Grumman for building immensely strong aircraft. The F4F never had a operational speed limitation. Production continued to the end of the war, mainly for use on escort carriers; Eastern Aircraft built it as the FM.
| General characteristics | |||
| Primary function | Fighter | ||
| Contractors | Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, Eastern Aircraft | ||
| Power plant | One Pratt&Whitney R-1830-86 engine | ||
| Thrust | 1,180 HP | 880 kW | |
| Wingspan | 38 ft | 11.58 m | |
| Length | 28.74 ft | 8.76 m | |
| Height | 9.22 ft | 2.81 m | |
| Wingarea | 260 sq ft | 24.15 sq m | |
| Weight | empty | 5,760 lb | 2,612 kg |
| max. | 7,952 lb | 3,607 kg | |
| Max. speed | 318 mph | 512 km/h | |
| Initial climb rate | 1,920 ft/min | 585 m/min | |
| Ceiling | 34,780 ft | 10,600 m | |
| Max. range | 1,274 miles | 2,050 km | |
| Armament | 6x 12.7mm machine gun; 2x 113 kg bombs | ||
| Crew | One | ||
| First flight | prototype | September 2, 1936 | |
| serial version | February, 1940 | ||
| Date deployed | 1940 | ||
| Number built | 7815 | ||
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Jirka Wagner
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Last updated 01.10.2008