About the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat
At the onset of the Pacific War in December 1941, the Japanese Navy A6M Zero fighter was the dominant aircraft successful against the allied air forces. The Zero's attempt at total superiority was thwarted by numerous F4F Wildcat fighters flown from U.S. aircraft carriers.
Grumman Aviation produced the G-18, the prototype XF4F-2, which first flew in September 1937. Initial evaluation revealed several performance problems, which led the U.S. Navy to reject the G-18 in favor of the Brewster's F2A "Buffalo". The Navy asked Grumman to continue with the project, and resulted in the G-36, which flew in February 1939. The G-36 tests exceeded the performance of the F2A, resulting in the U.S. Navy approving the design and ordering it into production as the F4F-3 Wildcat. Two yeas following its deployment, during the critical stages of the Pacific War in 1942, the improved F4F-4 Wildcat was introduced. It had folding wings, and three 12.7mm machine guns in each wing, plus the more powerful 1,200 P & W R-1830-86 Twin Wasp engine, giving it a speed of 512km/h. Grumman became known as the "Ironworks" due to its strongly designed aircraft, which could absorb enormous punishment and still fly home.
Although the F4F was inferior in many respects to the Zero, a superb kill ration was attained by Wildcat pilots by using its strong points against the Zero's weak point of fragility and unseasoned pilots.
Royal mail at £3.95, or Express at £6.95.
Full details at checkout.
Some items cannot be sent via Royal Mail due to their restrictions.
To see shipping costs simply add the item to your basket and choose your country from the drop down list on the view cart page.
Use this form to ask us a quick one sentence question about this specific product. Do not enter anything you would not like displayed on our site.
For more in depth queries, please feel free to email or call us.
Our system will drop you an automated e-mail as soon as this product comes back into stock.
Want to reserve this product now and pay later? No problem!
Just add it to your basket and choose the 'instore collection' delivery option. Our system will take a £30.00 deposit and then email you as soon as stock arrives.
You can then arrange collection or delivery to suit yourself, knowing that your place in the queue is secure.
This is ideal for pre-ordering new release items!