Grumman took the Hellcat’s powerplant and put it on a ruthless diet to create the F8F Bearcat, a compact carrier fighter built to climb like nothing else and fit where Hellcats could not. From its ...
The Grumman F8F Bearcat seemed destined for aviation greatness from its inception. Designed to outperform earlier legends such as the Mustang, Corsair, and its stablemate, the Hellcat, the Bearcat was ...