MAQUETTE À MONTER - F4F-4 Wildcat early ProfiPACK Edition Eduard | N° 82202 | 1:48 **LIKE NEW INSIDE UNOPENED**

Characteristics

Description

At the outbreak of the War in the Pacific region, the Wildcat was the most important fighter aircraft on the carrier decks of US Navy ships. But the Wildcat pilots had to confront faster and more maneuverable Japanese Zero fighters. In the early 1930s Grumman company became a major supplier of fighter aircraft to the US Navy with the FF biplane and its successors, the F2F and F3F. By 1935, however, the biplanes were reaching their limits and with the XF4F-1 prototype (factory designation G-19) Grumman failed against the Brewster F2A-1 Buffalo cantilever monoplane in the US Navys competition for a new fighter. The XF4F-1 prototype was retained as a backup, but at Grumman they had realized biplanes were getting obsolete as they redesigned it into an all-metal mid-wing monoplane, designated the XF4F-2 (G-18). The fuselage of the XF4F-1 was retained with minor changes, while the wing was completely new, employing the newly-developed NACA 230 airfoil. The new aircraft was powered by a 1,000 hp (736 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine with a single-stage single-speed supercharger. The 110-gal (415 L) fuel tank was located beneath the cockpit with a 20-gal (75 L) reserve tank behind the pilots seat. Armament consisted of two .30 (7.62 mm) machine guns in the fuselage and two .50 (12.7 mm) machine guns in the wing. There were also provisions for two 100-lb (45 kg) bombs under the wing. Structurally complex undercarriage was adopted from previous designs. It was retractable manually into the fuselage using a crank. The maiden flight of the XF4F-2 occurred on September 2, 1937, and in April 1938 comparative trials were conducted with the XF2A-1 Buffalo and with the Seversky XFN-1. Although the Wildcat prototype was the fastest, reaching 290 mph (466 km/h) compared to 280 mph (450 km/h) for the Buffalo and 250 mph (402 km/h) for the XFN-1, it still did not meet the Navys requirement of 300 mph (482 km/h). It also lagged behind the Buffalo in some areas. So, it was Brewster who received an order to deliver 54 units of the F2A-1 Buffalo, which handled better, not to mention the hydraulically operated landing gear. Grumman did not give up, however, and started the work on an improved version of the XF4F-7 (G-36). The Wildcat was the main carrier-borne fighter of the US Navy and USMC at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and as such had to face a new and dangerous adversary, the Japanese Zero. Although the Wildcat lagged it in terms of performance and maneuverability, its rugged design, quite a strong armor protection and self-sealing fuel tanks made it much more capable of taking damage in combat. In addition, the American pilots were also helped by the defensive tactics developed before the outbreak of the war by Lt. Cmdr. John S. Jimmy Thach which was named the Thach Weave after him. During the fighting for Guadalcanal, Wildcat pilots then used the hit and run high altitude ambush tactics with success. This kit: F4F-4 Wildcat early As experience has shown, the armament of four .50 (12.7 mm) machine guns was insufficient for fighting multi-engine bombers. Thus, the British Admiralty made a request for increase in weight of fire, as did a request to add a folding wing. The resulting F4F-4 received a pair of extra .50 machine guns. However, Grumman was faced with an additional weight to the aircraft, which already was lacking power. As they sought a means to limit the weight increase, the ammo load was reduced. Instead of the 450 rounds per barrel of the F4F-3, the F4F-4 had only 250 rounds for each of its six barrels, which cut the firing time from 34 to 20 seconds. The Sto-Wing system, developed by Leroy Grumman, was used for folding wing, in which the outer part of the wing was folded to the rear while being rotated to a near-vertical position. The F4F-4s were received with reservations by pilots. Increased weight made them less agile, and the rate of climb was noticeably reduced. The early production aircraft retained the lifeboat stowage in the fuselage ridge behind the cockpit, with the box only opening to the right.

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