F7F-1 Tigercat FSX & P3D Native Released

[menef]

The service planes never ran this spinner, although there are some photos of early F7F-1 planes with the larger spinner that was used on the test mule. You are correct that the spinner was abandoned for service aircraft.

I modeled the "La Patrona" spinner for the upcoming F7F-3 aircraft, but included it in the F7F-1 package just for fun. It appears that the "what if " paints favor this spinner...it is a very attractive package.

Thank you Gman !!!!!

 

[dvj]

The service planes never ran this spinner, although there are some photos of early F7F-1 planes with the larger spinner that was used on the test mule. You are correct that the spinner was abandoned for service aircraft.

I modeled the "La Patrona" spinner for the upcoming F7F-3 aircraft, but included it in the F7F-1 package just for fun. It appears that the "what if " paints favor this spinner...it is a very attractive package.

This was totally a "what if". I just wanted to see if I identified the spinner model to the F7F-1 service blue how the spinners would look.

 

[Bomber_12th]

I was thinking back to what Tigercats I recall having seen in person and taken photos of myself, and I think the only ones I've seen were at Chino last year, with Jim Slattery's F7F-3N BuNo.80375 that was restored at Westpac on flying display, the sister-ship F7F-3N BuNo.80374 also owned by Jim Slattery which was still under restoration at Fighter Rebuilders at the time (was completed/flying by a couple months later), and the static F7F-3N BuNo.80382 at the Planes of Fame Air Museum (the only surviving example with the original radar nose).

Note that these first two restored examples are painted in the authentic late 1944/45 (and post-WWII) glossy sea blue - it was by no means flat/matte paint like earlier in the war. Also, authentically, just about everything was painted blue, down to the gear legs and wheels (originally the prop hubs were usually also painted blue when in service) - "I don't care what you paint it, as long as it's blue..."





I don't know the story on the spinners fitted to the F7F on display at Planes of Fame, but I've never seen them in period/in-service photographs. I do know that it has been missing props for many years, even back to when the Navy had it on display at Pensacola. The addition of the spinners, which I'm sure came from another aircraft type, were probably added just to make it look a bit more complete without actually having props (or prop hubs) fitted. These spinners might have actually been partially responsible/inspiration for the spinners installed on the Rod Lewis Reno air racing Tigercat "La Patrona". Someday, this one might fly again, but it would take wheelbarrow loads of money and a ton of work. As I mentioned above, this is the only surviving example with the radar nose.

 

[menef]

I'm not so good as YOYO, anyway, this is my carrier qualification

 

[YoYo]

The addition of the spinners, which I'm sure came from another aircraft type, were probably added just to make it look a bit more complete without actually having props (or prop hubs) fitted.

Interesting, perhaps You have right. I didnt see any F7F-3N period picture like this, especially that engines of F7F had tendency to overheating.

 

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, I could see the original prop cones (prototypes) causing issues with the engines not getting enough air through the cowls for proper cooling, and I assume that is the reason why they were done away with after the early evaluations - though too, I would expect they would have provided a bit of an unnecessary maintenance headache as well. The way the Planes of Fame Tigercat is displayed, it almost looks like jet intakes.

BTW, great screenshots Menef, YoYo, and DVJ!

 

[Bomber_12th]

Sorry for more thread drift, but I finally tracked-down these photos again, from Westpac Restorations, showing both of Jim Slattery's flying F7F-3N Tigercats side-by-side. These two, a rarity among warbirds, actually rolled off the assembly line one after the other - one is 80374 and the other is 80375 (in-fact, even more crazy, the Tigercat on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola is 80373!). 80375 was restored at Westpac and 80374 was restored at Fighter Rebuilders (both also shown in my photos above), and were finished in matching delivery schemes with the factory numbers on the cowls and "JS" codes on the tail fins.







Note the dual drop tanks and rocket launcher stubs.

 

[gman5250]

Not sure about thread drift, I see a lot of excellent reference material for the F7F-3. The hanging wing gives me a good reference to the amount of gloss to add. I was a hot rod builder for a long time and can see right away the gloss is that of a single stage urethane or, in early models, enamel paint. Single stage paint, rather than two stage i.e. color coat/clear coat, has a different kind of gloss. Single stage does not have the "Wet" look of two stage paint, but rather a rich warm gloss with tons of depth. This is the challenge for polished metal as well. To create a finish that doesn't look like it was just hosed down is not easy. I work on improving the technique constantly.

I can create the gloss enamel look for the sim aircraft with a little bit of judicious tweaking of the various alpha layers.

Also the blue gear struts, blue wheels and silver paint spinners are deal makers or breakers. The engine case paint is another area of interest, with the bolt detail and operational grime showing. I'm making a build list for the F7F3...this stuff is invaluable.

Drift on gentlemen...

 

[YoYo]

Finally Gears Up/Down indicator works.

I noted temperatures of engines problem also.
Always max after 2-4 minutes, no matter what I did with prop, throttles, mixtures or cowls (and never drops).
Maybe any mod/patch for this too? Not very important but will be nice.

 

[Tuor2112]

YoYo, I used AirEd to change the 'Oil temp tuning constant' in the airfile to 0.95 from 1.1. It might need to go a bit lower still. Cheers

 

[langereis]

Tigercat howl

Hi Gman 5250,

The Tigercat Howl (page 1) is indeed impressive.
Is there already a patch for it?

Kind regards

 

[alain0568]

Hello
For the problem of engine temperature, I used the values of the .air file FS9 model!
either:

rec:543 Engine oil Temperature
oil temp scale factor=(1.10000) -1.00000
oil temp cooling factor=(0.089000) - 0.10000
oil temp limit (deg R)=670.0000 (same value)
oil temp rate of change=(0.01700) -0.007000





Alain

-

 

[gman5250]

Hi Gman 5250,

The Tigercat Howl (page 1) is indeed impressive.
Is there already a patch for it?

Kind regards

The sound file is still a WIP at this moment. I think that the sound file should be available when I release the F7F-3 variant...not too long.

 

[Bomber_12th]

A superb new video has been posted to the Planes of Fame Air Museum Videos Facebook page, of one of Rod Lewis' Tigercats being flown by Stewart Dawson through a high-energy demonstration at this year's Planes of Fame airshow: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Planes-of-Fame-Air-Museum-Video-Page/371510466263780?fref=ts Its incredible performance is easy to see in a demonstration like this.

 

[gman5250]

I've spent most of my flying hours in the Cat while doing the conversion. The one thing that stands out in the flight model is how crisp and nimble this airplane feels for a large twin radial. Watching the video, one can see that the flight model is extremely accurate, especially when flying aerobatics or closed course.

Great video.

 

[YoYo]

Hello
For the problem of engine temperature, I used the values of the .air file FS9 model!
either:

rec:543 Engine oil Temperature
oil temp scale factor=(1.10000) -1.00000
oil temp cooling factor=(0.089000) - 0.10000
oil temp limit (deg R)=670.0000 (same value)
oil temp rate of change=(0.01700) -0.007000





Alain

-

Hello,
can You add here the new .air file? I haven't any program to tweak FM....

 

[Bomber_12th]

I believe it was in this thread earlier that someone was asking about how the F7F stacks-up against the P-38, and what the reasoning was behind its design. One way to look at it is that the Tigercat's sheer performance outweighs that of the Lightning. Depending on the exact dash-model of the R-2800's used, and whether or not WEP was used, the engines combined produce up to about 4,200 hp, and the Tigercat itself weighs about 16,000 lbs empty/25,500 lbs gross. With the P-38, on the other hand, the engines combined produce 3,200 hp (WEP), and the airframe weighs about 13,000 lbs empty/21,500 lbs gross. In modern pilot reports, pilots flying the Tigercat for the first time always rave about its performance, where as pilots flying the P-38 for the first time usually comment that the Lightning doesn't have the amount of performance or nimbleness they expected. Clay Lacy has mentioned that the climb performance in a Tigercat is just like a Learjet. Some have gone on record as saying that the Tigercat was designed to take-on the Kamikaze attacks, but the truth is that the design originally came about very early in the war, even before the US entered into WWII, and of course that being far earlier than the first Kamikaze attacks. The intention of its design was simply to be able to greatly overpower any aerial threat that existed at the time, and meet several criteria, including being a fast interceptor and a capable ground-attack aircraft. Grumman would also propose to the Navy that it be built as a single-seat night fighter, which the Navy was keen on. The design development lasted much longer than normal, as by early 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy requested that Grumman put all their effort into the development and production of the new F6F Hellcat (the contracts for the prototype Hellcat and Tigercat were actually both signed by the Navy on June 30, 1941, and the Navy had placed orders for thousands of more Hellcats than Tigercats). When the prototype F7F did finally first fly in November 1943 (about a year and a half after the prototype Hellcat first flew), it already began to meet or exceeded all expectations. The Tigercat was found to be faster at low altitudes than the both of its contemporaries, the Corsair and Hellcat (of which it was found to be about 70 mph faster). Obviously the only let down was from the problems with carrier suitability.

There were only 34 F7F-1 variants produced (as covered in this first pack of Tigercats), and most of these were only used for training and evaluation. The most numerous type was the F7F-3, of which 250 were produced, in three different variants - the F7F-3 single-seat fighter, the two-seat F7F-3N night-fighter, and the single-seat F7F-3P reconnaissance fighter. It was however the F7F-2N variant which was deployed first, with VMF(N)-531, and were to be based at Okinawa - however, with the atomic bombs being dropped on Japan, WWII ended a day after the Tigercats arrived on the island. After WWII, the Tigercats continued to operate in Navy and Marine service, and could still outperform the early jets that were being introduced. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, VMF(N)-542 and their F7F-3N Tigercats were deployed to Kimpo, and began combat operations, with air patrols and night interdiction missions. So successful, VMF(N)-513 was then also equipped with Tigercats to serve in conjunction with their F4U-5N Corsairs. The last Tigercat combat mission was flown by VMF(N)-513 in April 1952. By the mid-50's, surviving Tigercats were flown to and stored at NAS Litchfield Park, pending disposal. The majority of the Tigercats that survive today were among those that were fortunately sold surplus and found their way into fighting fires as water tankers, beginning in the early late 50's/early 60's.

 

[alain0568]

For Yoyo,



I used aired.exe to read and modify .air files:

http://simviation.com/simviation/?ID=200&page=2&mark=5895

http://desktopaviator.tripod.com/Programs/Utility/Air_Edit/

Best regards


Alain
-

 

[hairyspin]

... with the atomic bombs being dropped on Japan, WWII ended a day after the Tigercats arrived on the island.

That's very reminiscent of another Allied twin-engine type: the DH.103 Sea Hornet prototype made its first carrier landings on HMS Ocean the day Japan surrendered. It also had a terrific aerobatic reputation. That said, I've had more success landing the Tigercat than Rob Carrich's Hornet: must practice more!

 

[menef]

Comparison :