Time is flying and you should be too

Thats right the year is half over and if you have not joined Tri-State Model Flyers Inc. what are you waiting for. You can download a membership application which has been updated to allow you to fill it out on your PC, sign it and mail it in. You can find everything you need to know about joining our club in the Join Our Club menu found under the About US Menu. We have several new members and would be happy to get you started flying. Stop by and check us out!

Aircraft History

This months featured aircraft helped to draw the war in the pacific to end and saved countless lives in its roll in WW II. This months featured aircraft is the Grumman F6F Hellcat. Among naval aircraft, the WW II F6F Hellcat achieved a fighter record that remains unsurpassed: it was the fighter flown by Naval Aviators when credited with downing 5,155 enemy aircraft - by far the largest number credited to pilots flying any Navy fighter. This record was achieved in less than two years of combat operations, an indication of the intensity of air combat in the Pacific. It wasn't the fastest WW II fighter, and one can argue how it might have fared in the European air war, what the capabilities were in the second half of the Pacific war, or many other "what ifs," but the record stands.

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The F6F was clearly the right airplane at the right time. An earlier appearance in Pacific combat would have been welcomed, but it would have been a different and less capable fighter, so even that issue joins the other "what ifs." And Grumman's record of getting the F6F from first contract into combat in only a little over two years, while incorporating post Pearl Harbor combat dictated changes, was outstanding, even by the standards of that era. Admittedly, its roots trace back some additional years - but not the development of the final F6F.

TSMFClub You Tube Channel

This year Tri-State Model Flyers videos will be posted in our own You Tube Channel... http://www.youtube.com/TSMFClub.

You Tube offers more than we currently have on our site, it offers HD videos streaming, a higher bandwidth and this will also give us another location to promote our club and hobby.

A Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida. The Museum is located on the Naval Air Station Base at Pensacola it is open to the public and free.

In 1938, with the Grumman XF4F-2 in flight test, the Navy and Grumman began looking at putting a larger engine in the F4F. When it became clear that the F4F needed more wing area to take full advantage of its basic design and engine, resulting in the ultimately successful XF4F-3, the design studies for the follow-on shifted to reflect that experience. In the 1939-40 time period, the Navy and Grumman focused their attention elsewhere for the next generation fighter - to Vought's inverted gull-FSF-5N wing XF4U-1 and Grumman's twin engine

XF5F-1. But single-engine fighter studies continued at Grumman, taking into account growing European wartime experience. The advent of

folding wings introduced with the F4F-4 pointed the way for another desirable

feature on what was becoming a much larger carrier aircraft. Read the rest of this story by clicking on the link to the PDF below and check out more on the Hellcat by following the links below.

VISITS SINCE APRIL 30, 2009

F6F Hellcat article by Hal Andrews

Wikipedia.org - The ultimate source for information on just about any thing

National Museum of Naval Aviation - Fantastic place to visit

F6F-3 Hellcat information from the National Museum of Naval Aviation’s site

Picture # 2 of the F6F-3 Hellcat pictured above

Picture # 3 of the F6F-3 Hellcat pictured above

F6F-5 Hellcat information from the National Museum of Naval Aviation’s site

Picture of the F6F-5 Hellcat on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation

Airliners.net - The best place for aircraft photos

Daily Motion - Video of the F6F Hellcat

Naval History and Heritage - A great site

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