Exhibits & Collections

Where F7F pilots and radar operators earned their keep was in night reconnaissance missions interdicting enemy traffic. Typically lasting between 1.5 and 2 hours, these “road recces” were conducted at extremely low altitude, with the keen eyesight of the crew oftentimes more valuable than the aircraft’s radar. Night operations presented their share of operational difficulties. “The guns were located right beside the cockpit and the pilot would be half blinded when he fired them,” Woodard recalled. “I closed my eyes momentarily to preserve my night vision, while the radar operator kept his eyes open to observe the target.” Operating in the bitterly cold winter of 1953, Woodard and his squadronmates had to avoid turning on the heater because it operated using fuel drawn from the fuel pressure gauge line, not a good combination if the plane took an antiaircraft round near the cockpit. Another cold weather issue was snow on the ground, upon which a swinging parachute flare dropped to illuminate the landscape created shadows that looked like targets.

Any difficulties were more than overcome by the fact that in the interdiction role, the F7F had found its niche. A report of combat activity over Korea summarized one month of operations of VMF(N) -513 in March 1951, which totaled some 2,000 hours of night combat flying during which squadron aircraft conducted attacks on 3,764 vehicles. All told, during the Korean War Marine Corps F7Fs logged 7,119 combat flights, 27 of which ended in Tigercats being lost on combat missions, including one VMF(N)-513 plane, written off after a crash landing after the plane hit a tree during a night mission.

Final Flights

During the Korean War, VMF(N)-513 also operated the F3D Skyknight, a twin-engine jet, alongside World War II-vintage F4U Corsairs and the F7F, a symbolic passing of the torch as naval aviation moved steadily into the jet age. Yet, while the roar of the Tigercat’s engines faded in military skies, the airplane found new life as an aerial tanker, the treetop missions akin to those in Korea targeting forest fires. Such was the disposition of the aircraft on display in the museum, which was stricken from the Navy inventory in 1948 and eventually purchased by TBM Inc. of Tulare, California, and given the civilian registration number N7654C. By 1977, it had 2,629 hours of flight time, including some as a fire fighting aircraft. Acquired by the museum in 1980, the F7F-3 flew to Pensacola, arriving on September 21st of that year. Still in civilian markings, it was placed in storage in Building 380 aboard NAS Pensacola until restored and painted in Marine Corps markings by the Naval Aviation Depot.

Pictured on this page, an F7F-3N Tigercat of Marine Night Fighter Squadron (VMF(N)-513 pictured on the ground in Korea and the museum's F7F-3 pictured in civilian service as an aerial firefighter.