Grumman F3F

Le F-3 F de Grumman tel que décrit par un contributeur de Wikipedia. In english

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The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] F3F was the last [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] delivered to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and served between the wars. Designed as an improvement on the single-seat [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], it entered service in 1936.

It was retired from front line squadrons at the end of 1941 before it could serve in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and was first replaced by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Buffalo.

The F3F which inherited the landing gear configuration first used on the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] served as the basis for a biplane design ultimately developed into the much more successful [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

When it entered combat, the Wildcat would quickly replace the Buffalo as the primary fighter of the Navy and Marines in the first part of World War II, and continue to be produced throughout the conflict.

Design and development


The Navy's experience with the F2F revealed issues with stability and unfavorable spin characteristics, prompting the 15 October 1934 contract for the improved XF3F-1, placed before F2F deliveries began.

The contract also required a capability for ground attack, in addition to the design's fighter role.

Powered by the same [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine as the F2F, the fuselage was lengthened and wing area increased over the earlier design.

A reduction in wheel diameter allowed greater fuselage streamlining, eliminating the prominent bulge behind the
cowling of the F2F.

The prototype, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 9727, was delivered and first flown on 20 March 1935 with company test pilot Jimmy Collins making three flights that day.

Two days later, six dive-recovery flights took place; on the 10th, the aircraft's pullout at 8,000 ft (2,438 m) registered 14 g on the test equipment. The aircraft broke up in midair, crashing in a cemetery and killing Collins.

A second, strengthened prototype was built, but it crashed on 9 May of the same year following the pilot's bailout during an unsuccessful [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] recovery.

The second prototype was rebuilt in three weeks, flying on 20 June 1935.

An order for 54 F3F-1 fighters was placed on 24 August of that year, following the conclusion of the flight test program.

Operational history


The first production F3F-1 was delivered on 29 January 1936 to the test group at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], with squadron service beginning in March to VF-5B of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and VF-6B of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] squadron [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] received the last six in January 1937.

Grumman, wanting to take advantage of the powerful new 950 hp (708 kW) [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] radial engine, began work on the F3F-2 without a contract; the order for 81 aircraft was not placed until 25 July 1936, two days before the type's first flight.

The engine's larger diameter changed the cowling's appearance, making the aircraft look even more like a barrel, though top speed increased to 255 mph (410 km/h) at 12,000 ft (3,658 m).

The entire F3F-2 production series was delivered in between 1937 and 1938; when deliveries ended, all seven Navy and Marine Corps pursuit squadrons were equipped with Grumman single-seat fighters.

Further aerodynamic developments were made to an F3F-2 returned to Grumman for maintenance; it became the XF3F-3, and featured a larger-diameter propeller, among other improvements.

On 21 June 1938, the Navy ordered 27 improved F3F-3s, as new [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fighters like the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and Grumman's own [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] were taking longer to develop than had been planned.

With the introduction of the Brewster F2A-1, the Navy's biplane fighter days were numbered. All F3Fs were withdrawn from squadron service by the end of 1941, though 117 were assigned to naval bases and used for training and utility duties until December 1943.
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A few F3Fs were used by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] as ferry-pilot trainers, under the designation UC-103.

A civilian aerobatic two-seat variant, the G-32A "Gulfhawk II," was constructed in 1938 and flown by Major Alfred "Al" Williams (Ret.), head of Gulf Oil's aviation department.

Survivors


A Grumman F3F-2 was ditched off the coast of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 29 August 1940 while attempting a landing on Saratoga.

The fighter was rediscovered by a navy submarine in June 1988, and recovered on 5 April 1991. It was restored at the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Today, four other surviving aircraft are flying, three F3F-2 models and the Gulf Oil G-32A, which were restored by Herb Tischler's Texas Airplane Factory in Fort Worth. The restorations took four years and consisted of rebuilding the G-32A, from original blueprints with tooling built at the Texas Airplane Factory.

The main components of three -2 aircraft which had originally crashed in Hawaii were utilized to complete the other restorations.

One of the resulting restorations is ondisplay at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in Polk City, Florida.