F7F Tigercats Over North Korea

Grumman's svelte postwar killer

- Warren E. Thompson

The end of the war with Japan happened so fast that the U.S. effort to complete a twin-engine fighter was slowed. The Navy tried Grumman’s F7F Tigercat and found that it was too heavy and its high landing speed caused the aircraft to fail carrier-suitability trials. Therefore, the Marines decided to try it and said that it would work perfectly from its land bases. The only contenders for their types of missions were the F-82 Twin Mustang and the F7F Tigercat. They had both been designed to fly long-range escort on the B-29 Superfortresses on their bombing raids to Japan. Both aircraft were in production and ready for service shortly after the war ended, so they were available when the Korean War started in late June 1950. The F-82 was already in inventory in the Far East. Marine night fighter units, however, were alerted that they would be taking the Tigercat into battle.

A New War for Marine Aviators

The first Marine unit to arrive after the invasion at Inchon was VMF(N)-542, under the command of Lt. Col. Max Volcansek. They loaded their 24 F7Fs on the USS Cape Esperance and headed for Japan on August 26, 1950. Two months had passed since the North Koreans invaded the south, so their timing was perfect. The aircraft had twin engines and tricycle landing gear, and seen from certain angles, it was a beautiful airframe that exuded a tremendous “killer” presence. The armament it carried included four 20mm cannon mounted in the wing roots with 800 rounds of ammunition. The F7F had provisions for eight 5-inch (12.7cm) high-velocity aircraft rockets (HVAR) or three 11.75-inch Tiny Tim air-to-ground rockets. On top of this, it had a speed of 435mph, a rate of climb at 3,500 feet per minute, and a range of 1,200 miles.