Exhibits & Collections

Nevertheless, the experience with the XF5F-1 demonstrated for Grumman what not to do and when in March 1941 the company submitted a proposal for what became the F7F Tigercat, the design featured a large vertical stabilizer instead of the smaller twin-stabilizers of the XF5F-1. Instead of on the nose, the wings mounted in the middle of the fuselage. First flight for the latest addition to the Grumman “Cat” family of fighters occurred in November 1943, and the aircraft proved to be a swift bird in flight with a maximum speed of 445 m.p.h. and a climb rate of 4,360 ft. per minute, both of which eclipsed those of the Hellcat. Though the aircraft was a fine aerobatic platform, where problems arose were in its spin characteristics, the flight handbook for the F7F-1 devoting just one word to the section covering spins— “Prohibited.” Nevertheless, with the added power of two engines and a cockpit that offered excellent visibility, the Navy had high hopes for the plane’s potential as a carrier aircraft and a year after first taking to the air, the Tigercat completed initial carrier qualification trials on board Shangri-La (CV 38).

However, structural deficiencies in the design, which sometimes resulted in the wings breaking at the position of the landing gear, proved problematic. In addition, the difficulty of operating the aircraft on Essex-class carriers, from the space limitations to the special barrier required for the F7F’s tricycle landing gear in the event of an errant landing or tailhook malfunction, created difficulties. In 1947, the F7F-4N version of the Tigercat, which corrected the structural problems, successfully completed carrier trials on board the carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB 42), one of the large deck battle carriers on which the Tigercat was originally designed to operated. By this time, the decision had been made to operate the aircraft primarily from land and to this end its use by Navy squadrons was restricted to just a handful of squadrons.

They Ruled the Night

Deliveries of what eventually totaled 364 Tigercats were completed in 1946, the end of World War II curtailing the anticipated production. Among this number were eleven different production versions. The most extensively modified F7Fs were the night fighter versions (F7F-2N/3N/4N), which incorporated a cockpit behind the pilot, occupied by a radar operator and in some versions a lengthened and modified nose housing the aircraft’s radar. Indeed, given the fact that in its earliest iterations the F7F had been equipped with an internally-mounted radar, a first for a single-seat aircraft, it is only natural that the Tigercat left its greatest mark on naval aviation history as a nocturnal hunter in the skies over Korea.

F7Fs first deployed to Korea in 1950, and during the war three Marine Corps night fighter squadrons operated in theater. Second Lieutenant Reese Woodard reported to Marine Night Fighter Squadron (VMF(N)) 513 in 1953, deploying with the “Flying Nightmares” to Korea that same year. An F4U Corsair pilot during World War II, he remembered that flying the Tigercat “took a little getting used to because of those monstrous engines.” The biggest fear among pilots new to the F7F was losing an engine on take-off or landing and flipping the aircraft over on its back. Unlike in the F4U, in which he was quick to engage in a dogfight, to Woodard the F7F was not a fighter in the truest sense of the word, but more an interceptor. In fact, in this role Tigercats shot down two enemy aircraft in Korea.

Pictured on this page, an F7F-4N Tigercat of Night Composite Squadron (VCN) 2 pictured on the flight deck of the carrier Kearsarge (CV 33) in September 1947.  The nose view of an F7F-3E Tigercat provides excellent views of the aircraft's tricycle landing gear and narrow fuselage.