Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
My Dad did operational training in 1943 on the R-1830-powered Grumman F4F Wildcat and was then assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area as a replacement fighter pilot. When he got to the SWPA, he checked out for the first time in the Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat with that magnificent Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine and then went into combat. Late in the war, his squadron flew the R-2800-powered Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat and then as a test pilot (1947-1950) he flew F4Us, F6Fs, F8Fs and the twin-engined Grumman F7F Tigercat, which I read once described as "two Bearcats strapped together"  I think his final flights behind an R-2800 were in tired old F6F Hellcats during the early 1950s for proficiency while going to school. So call it ten years of flying R-2800-powered aircraft.
Aircraft with R-2800s that he did NOT fly include the AJ Savage heavy attack bomber, TBY torpedo bomber, P-47 Thunderbolt, the B-26 Marauder, the A-26 Invader, the C-46, C-123 and C-131 transports and anything with four engines. I've probably missed one or two there. The TBM Avenger torpedo bomber of WW2, which was powered by a Wright R-2600, was scheduled to be tested with the R-2800 but the end of the war cancelled that plan.
Here is some sweet R-2800 music:
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How cool it is that your dad had those aviation experiences and on top of it, shared them with you so you can write about it 70+ years later.
My dad was a Marine pilot and his favorite plane was the F4U. He was mum about his time in the Marines until his later years when he opened up and shared stories and gave me his log books. As I've mentioned in other posts, his stories are right in line with the movie Devotion.
I'm just now digging in to see what airplanes he flew; I'm sure many of them are the ones you mentioned. I do know that he started training in a Stearman Bi-plane and ended with the F2H Banshee jet.