Warpaint Series No. 84 - Grumman F6F Hellcat

60 pages. Illustrated with full color artwork and profiles, detailed scale drawings and more than 140 photographs. Even before Pearl Harbor the US Navy realized that it would be hard for its existing fighters to deal with Japan's A6M Zero. The situation was such that in June 1941 the US Navy placed orders with Grumman's 'Iron Works' for the F6F Hellcat before the first prototype had even flown. It was the right decision - the new fighter, although much larger and heavier than the Zero, proved to be the latter's nemesis, so that the American fighter's better fire-power, sturdiness, range and speed more than matched the Zero's agility. It was also timely, as the Hellcat remained the main carrier fighter of the USN throughout the rest of WWII and established air superiority in the Pacific. In barely two years of war it destroyed no less than 5,271 enemy aircraft of the 6,477 claimed by the US fighters, attaining a fantastic kill-to-loss ratio of 19.1:1. The Hellcat was also used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and in the postwar period it saw service with the French Aéronavale, which used them in Indochina, as well as with the Uruguayan Navy.