Ah...yes...the Bearcat! A beautiful plane, but seemed somewhat...how do I say...high strung?
I always wondered how it would have done in real combat. I saw the accident in Oshkosh a few years back, when the Bearcat collided with the Corsair...made me sick to see that.
The Grumman F8F Bearcat (affectionately called "Bear") was the company's final piston engined fighter aircraft. Designed for the interceptor fighter role, the design team's aim was to create the smallest, lightest fighter that could fit around the Pratt & Whitney R2800 engine (carried over from the F6F Hellcat) and the armament of four 20mm cannon. Compared to its predecessor, the Bearcat was 20% lighter, had a 30% better rate of climb, and was 50 mph (80 km/h) faster. In comparison with the Vought F4U Corsair, the Bearcat was marginally slower but was more manuverable and climbed faster. Many features of its design were inspired by a captured Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter that had been handed over to the Grumman facilities.
The F8F prototypes were ordered in November 1943 and first flew on 21 August 1944, a mere nine months later. The first production aircraft was delivered in February 1945 and the first squadron was operational by 21 May, but World War II was over before the aircraft saw combat service.
Postwar, the F8F became a major Navy fighter, equipping 24 fighter squadrons. Often mentioned as one of best (if not the best) handling piston-engine fighters ever built, their performance was such that they outmatched even many early jets, but that advantage was eventually eclipsed; the Grumman F9F Panther and McDonnell F2H Banshee largely replaced it in USN service.
Other nations that flew the Bearcat included the French and Thai air forces. French aircraft saw combat service in French Indochina as fighter-bombers in the early 1950s.
A small number of Bearcats survive; approximately eleven are airworthy, eight are restored for static display and approximately a dozen are wrecks or restoration projects. Bearcats have been fairly popular in air racing, and one, Rare Bear owned by Lyle Shelton is the holder of the record as the "fastest propeller-driven aircraft in the world" (averaged over a 3km course) at 528.33 mph (850.26 km/h), set in 1989.