WOW039 F6 Hellcat

Description

WOW039 The F6 Hellcat, one of the most famous
carrier borne aircraft of WW2. Designed as a requirement by the US Navy to
replace the Wildcat, the Hellcat competed with the Vought Corsair for this
lucrative contract. The Corsair had serious issues landing on a carrier and
was discounted by the Navy but adopted by the USMC and the Royal Navy Fleet
Air Arm.
The Hellcat was powered by a 2000 HP Pratt 7 Whitney engine and was favoured
by its Naval pilots for its rugged simple design and superb handling
qualities, which were more than a match for the Japanese Zero. Around 12,000
Hellcats were produced over a 2 year period with 5,223 enemy aircraft having
been credited destroyed by it during its wartime career.
Our aircraft ‘Minsi 111 was flown by David McCampbell the greatest American
Naval ace of all time with 34 aerial victories confirmed. McCampbell was one
of the few Naval aviators to become an ‘Ace in a Day’ twice, on one of these
occasions he downed 9 aircraft along with his wingman who downed a further 6
whilst attacking a Japanese force of 60 aircraft! At the end of the
engagement McCampbell’s Hellcat was found to only have 2 rounds left in the
machine guns and had to be manually removed from the arrestor hook as it was
so low on fuel! McCampbell was awarded the Medal of Honour for this action,
he remained with the Navy after WW2 and retired from the service in 1964, he
died in 1996 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Although the Hellcat is considered by many to be a small aircraft it
actually has a longer wingspan than the Corsair, which is considered to be
by many a large aircraft! It will therefore come as some surprise as to how
big this 1/30 scale aircraft actually is, it really is impressive to say the
least. The figure shown next to our aircraft is for scale comparison
purposes and is not included, however you do get underwing rockets, bombs
and a fuel tank as compensation!
Limited to 12 in number worldwide and priced at $599 (£399.00 including VAT)
plus P&P.