HOBBY MASTER AIR POWER SERIES

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Historical Note:  

When Lt. Cmdr. Roy Voris became the lead for the Naval Flight Demonstration Team he selected the F6F-5 as the team aircraft because this was the plane that made him a WWII Ace. To reduce weight the 3 Team F6F-5 aircraft were stripped of guns, ammunition boxes and any non-essential components. The paint scheme was an overall dark blue accented by the letters and number painted using gold-leaf paint. In 1954 the Blue Angels settled at NAS Pensacola, Florida where they remain to this day.

To keep the public interested in naval aviation Admiral Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team. The first show took place in 1946 under the lead of Lt. Cmdr. Roy "Butch" Voris and flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Two months later the team transitioned to the Grumman F8F Bearcat. In 1947 Lt. Cmdr. Robert Clarke took over as team lead and introduced what has become the famous "Diamond Formation". Before the end of the 1940's the Blue Angels had advanced to their first jet aircraft, the Grumman F9F-2 Panther.

Developed by Grumman to combat the Japanese Zero, the carrier-based F6F Hellcat was first flown on June 26, 1942. The Hellcat was a far more potent force than its predecessor, the Wildcat. It had increased fuel capacity, a low-mounted wing, wide landing gear, strengthened cockpit armor plating, and increased ammunition capacity. The big Double Wasp engine was set three degrees off the center axis, giving the aircraft a tail-down attitude in flight. Pilots' stories of "mostly holes where the airplane used to be" underscore the Hellcat's ability absorb unbelievable punishment and still return to the ship.

Hobby Master's 1:72 scale F6F Hellcat is constructed almost entirely from diecast metal, which gives it a nice, solid feel. It has crisp panel lines, a canopy that can be removed or displayed in the open position and a cockpit interior that features pad-printed dial and gauge instrumentation. There is also a removable center-mounted fuel tank and staged machine gun barrels with shell casing vents. Some variants have under-wing mounted rockets and bombs, night fighter versions feature radome mounted to the wing's leading edge and photo reconnaissance variants have a small camera port at the rear of the fuselage.

Info: Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat - USN Blue Angels, #2, 1946