Seaknight & M16, red : primary seaplanes

[ericr]

 

[ericr]

1/32 (old Revell, the wing articulation a bit too fragile unfortunately)
with 1/48 He115 floats

[Tophe]

Great scale-o-rama mix!

[Dizzyfugu]

This works surprisingly well. 

[PR19_Kit]

Didn't they do that in the RW?

[scooter]

Didn't they do that in the RW?

Prototyped one- the F4F-3S Wildcatfish.

[ericr]

yes indeed the wildcatfish

[NARSES2]

Wonderful 

Did the Wildcatfish have folding wings ?

[ericr]

I guess they kept the original wings for the prototype

[jcf]

All F4F-3 had non-folding wings with the exception of BuNo 1897, the final aircraft in the
initial F4F-3 order. It was the first Wildcat to have folding wings and it was designated as
XF4F-4 and was the prototype of F4F-4, it had hydraulic wing-fold the production aircraft
were manual.

The F4F-3S Wildcatfish was F4F-3 BuNo 4038, it was from the fifth block of F4F-3s.
An order for one hundred of the F4F-7 unarmed long range reconnaissance version was
changed to deliver the aircraft as F4F-3S, they were in the end delivered as F4F-3 fighter
trainers.

A smaller order of twenty-one of the F4F-7 was completed, one of which flew non-stop
from New York to NAS San Diego in just under eleven hours, it was the delivery flight.
Evidently longer missions were flown in the Solomon Islands. Along with removing the
guns and all related equipment the aircraft had non-folding wings holding 555 gallons
of fuel, total fuel capacity was 672 gallons giving an as designed range of 3,700 miles.
The F4F-7 had a rounded windscreen like the original Wildcat prototype, two cameras
were installed in the rear fuselage. The F4F-7s were BuNos 5263 - 5283.
Sorry Kit, they didn't extend the wingspan.


F4F-7, note the type unique fuel-vent pipe below the rudder, it had two of the pipes.

- Francillon, Grumman Aircraft since 1929.

[NARSES2]

Cheers Jon 

[ericr]

thanks for the informative update !

so a folding wing floatplane Wildcat is a whiff after all ;-)

[ericr]

[Tophe]

congratulations!

[zenrat]

Nice job.