Grumman F4F/General Motors FM Wildcat

Although the F4F Wildcat family of aircraft started with a Biplane XF4F-1 prototype that competed with the Brewster F2A-1 for a US Navy fighter contract in the late 1930's, the design was  reworked first into a monoplane XF4F-2 prototype design and then a prototype XF4F-3 design, which entered service with the US Navy and US Marine Corps as the F4F-3 in December 1940.

The production Grumman F4F Wildcat was an all-metal monoplane Fighter aircraft with retractable landing gear.  It was used operationally by the US Navy, US Marine Corps, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy throughout WWII.  

During the early part of the war in the Pacific the F4F was the US Navy's primary carrier based fighter plane, and later in the war it continued to serve on escort carriers of the US and Royal Navies.  During the war due to the need for increased production aircraft of this type were also built by the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Moters as the FM series of aircraft.  Variants of the F4F family in use during the war include a fixed wing variant fitted with a two-stage, two-speed supercharged engine designated the F4F-3, a similar aircraft fitted with a single-stage, two-speed engine designated the F4F-3A, a folding wing variant designated the F4F-4/FM-1, and a later war modified aircraft with a more powerful engine and reivsed vertical tail fin designated the FM-2.  The primary variants analyzed at this website include:

• the F4F-3
• the F4F-4 
• the FM-2

As shown in the images below distinguishing features of this aircraft including;

• a radial engine 
  
• a razorback configuration aft the cockpit
• shoulder mounted non-folding wings on the F4F-3 variant
• shoulder mounted folding wings on the F4F-4/FM-1 and FM-2 variants
  
• main landing gear that retracted into the fuselage

[Image Sources: Public Domain via Ref [8] - as annotated by this site]

Notes: This website has been developed with a number of low cost or free programs including Hot Metal Pro, KompoZer, MicroSoft Designer and Da Button Factory.com

Rev 3-3-25

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