F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Do you also take Helicopter Requests? If so, I'd like to know about the development history and evolution of the iconic Mi-24 Hind, or 'Crocodile' for its initial A variant.
Since you've been looking at the Grumman biplanes, how about doing a video on the Curtiss biplanes of the same era? The Boeing F4B/P-12 would be another good one to compare to them.
I don't understand why you use that criteria for metric and imperial measurements, Metric is still simpler and far easier to grasp than Imperial even if the engineer who designed the planes used Imperial.
At the academy in the 1970’s a retired USN LCDR who was one of our instructors, flew F3F’s out of NAS Alameda told us a story, that when he was a young pilot taking up an F3F after it had some maintenance done on it, found it to be very windy in the cockpit. He finally realized after he took off, that the maintenance crew forgot to put the windshield back! Good thing he had goggles. He would later join the USN LTA division and retired in 1962. He had a lot of great stories. He flew the PBY Catalina too. Quite a naval career.
Your episodes are getting more in-depth and better. You can absolutely see the line going from the 1920s all the way through the end of World War II in the Grumman aircraft. Such a distinctive set of lines.
@@emjackson2289 it even made the moon lander that popped itself down in the Sea of Tranquility. So that means it was a naval fighter too as it landed on a sea.
My Dad and I built a Monogram 1/32 scale model of the Gulfhawk when I was a kid in the 1960s. The landing gear would fold up and retract down as you rotated the propeller. This video brought back a lot of fond memories of modeling and watching old classic aviation movies.
I made a 500 mile diversion from a trip out west only because I learned that there was an original F3F at the Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs. I actually got to touch it, photograph it at length, ask and get answers from museum staff and generally have one of the best times of my life. I also encountered an F3A..... Yep, a Brewster-built Corsair at the museum (It's the only Brewster-built Corsair left... It's been "blueprinted" i.e. It's been rebuilt to original Chance-Vought specifications on literally everything.) GO TO THIS MUSEUM!!!!! Edit: Sidenote: As a Submariner, all of the museum staff- aviators all- were filled with questions about submarines and my career. I probably answered as many questions about submarining as I asked about flying. Good times...................
I built the Monogram model of the F3F when I was a lad. You would turn the propeller and that would activate the landing gear up and down - putting that together was my first education on engineering. My favorite model I ever made.
Definitely some of the most colourful military planes. I remember seeing a collection of 'Yellow Wings' at a model show in the 90s. It got me into making quite a few Rareplanes vac-form kits of these inter war planes. Great video.
Our model club president built one in 1/48th and added all the photo etch and resin available incuding turn buckles and EZ line. Lots of scratch building finished it up and it turned into a show winner.
Beautiful little fighter, when i started flying in War Thunder RB air mode it was my favorite Bi Plane, climbs like an Angel , turns good , good armarment. Accurate Miniatures made a very good/detailed 1:48 Kit.
same, some reserve biplanes arguable pack mroe punch, but I loved the F3F, it handled WAY better than any other biplane,a nd I ahve punched up agaisnt 2.3 fairly often
23:29 That cracked-up Buffalo was flown by none other than a young Lt. John "Jimmy" Thach, who later went on to better feats of airmanship. Not the least of which was developing the Thach Weave tactic of dealing with Japanese Zeroes. You have made at least one subscriber VERY happy with this video.
There is a mockup of a f3f in the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Mineola Long Island NY. The museum is only about 3 miles from the old Grumman iron works. When I was a kid it was being built by former Grumman Employees in the early 90s. It is complete with a landing gear and engine demonstration.
Talking about what's been written about these, Dad was in the Navy & briefly a pilot until eye trouble developed: he got aviation magazines and built models for years after he had to stop flying & I remember some air magazine in 1970s having article titled "Grumman's Biplane Beer Barrels."
Pretty remarkable how sturdy the design is when it's one of the very few biplane designs that transition well into a monoplane! It's up there next to the British equivalent, the Hawker Hurricane which was the monoplane version of the biplane Hawker Fury!
I believe this is when people began the “Grumman Ironworks” joke / nickname. Before our Avenger was restored to original WWII marine markings and configuration (turret / bomb bay doors, etc) she was a Canadian water bomber for Con-Air. Apparently a pilot misjudged a drop and flew the port wing into a telephone pole once. The plane snapped the telephone pole off, and to this day you can see the patch on the leading edge of the wing. When people ask if I get nervous flying in a 3/4-century-old plane to air shows, I usually just walk them over to the wing and show them the patch. 🙈
And their was a biplane version of the Hurricane… the Hillson FH-40. A number of the next generation propeller aircraft also became jet powered (P-51 to FJ-1 Fury & Spitfire XIV to Attacker)
It still is mind bending when one realizes that within the career of some pilots of this biplane leaving service, that Jet aircraft would be serving in some of the same ships and top speeds would go from the 250 mph range to well past the speed of sound.
I love the F3F and would put it up there with the Gladiator and Falco. Maybe not as agile, but I reckon it would leave them behind in a dive. The 2 speed blower would help at altitude too. A real hot rod of a biplane.
@@martijn9568 you're correct, but from what I've read both fighters were quite evenly matched. I'm no expert but would guess that a variable prop is not such a big benefit on 1930s biplanes. I can imagine the F3F needing one to get maximum low speed control for carrier landings.
These were indeed the end of Grumman MILITARY biplanes, but they would develop another biplane for aerial chemicals application (crop duster) in 1957...the Grumman Ag Cat. Funny enough the Ag Cat would become the basis of the later Air Tractor, which is itself the basis for a CAS aircraft proposal for USAF Special Operations. So it kinda came full circle in a severely roundabout way
Great video (and I love the 3D renderings!) I never knew about the Gulfhawks. But you're right -- there's a surprising lack of data and pictures about the FF, F2F, and F3F. This video helps to correct that.
Dad was posted to Yorktown in 1940. His first crew picture has VMF-5's F3F's in the background. His second crew photo has F4Fs...just before he went to flight school as an enlisted pilot (PBYs). There was an F3F that showed up at Oshkosh (1979?) but later crashed. I heard it was rebuilt.
Just as a matter of explanation, the yellow upper wings were not simply a matter of mere decoration They were painted that way to make the aircraft easier to spot if it had to ditch in the sea. In addition, the red "V" on the upper wing was also there for a reason. During the 1930s aviators placed a great deal of stress upon precision formation flying. As a result, Navy Aviators used the "V" shaped stripes painted on the upper wings as guides for lining up on each other while flying in formation.
Nice video! I find these fighters, together with other biplanes of its generation like the British Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Fury, the Italian Fiat Cr.32-Cr.42, the French Blériot-SPAD S.510 or the German Heinkel He.51 really interesting.
Wonderful video - slight correction though, as the Gulfhawk 2 is actually at the other air and space museum (Udvar Hazy Center) in Chantilly, VA and not D.C. I wouldn’t normally mention this, but I go there quite frequently as it’s only a few minutes away. 👍 Funny how these designs almost immediately resembled the Wildcat as a mid-monoplane, though I had never seen the lineage so clearly till this video. I’m lucky enough to help maintain and operate a Grumman TBM Avenger, and even in the case of that aircraft, the lineage is still clear. The mention of toughness is funny as well, as I’d imagine the nickname of the “Grumman ironworks” likely originated during the time of these designs, not the later “cats” and Avengers. They made some great aircraft, and I proudly sport a “Grumman Ironworks” patch on my flight suit when I crew her during air shows, etc.
5 : 07 Stability: All fuselages produce an unstable moment which is proportional to the volume of the fuselage. The part stabilizing the directional stability is a long moment arm from the CG to the vertical, along span of the vertical and a large stability derivative of the airfoil and a high aspect ratio. This aircraft has all prospects of lacking stability, especially the fat fuselage.
The US Navy's Flying Chiefs wore the rating Chief Aviation Pilot (APC), with facsimile gold wings as the rating mark. The rating was instituted due to the Navy's shortage of officer pilots inter-war, when commissions were limited and officers entered flight school only after 2 years aboard surface ships. The hit 1932 movie _Hell Divers_ starred Clark Gable and Wallace Beery as APCs aboard USS _Saratoga._
28:45. Just to note, the Gulfhawk 2 is not in the DC Air and Space museum (the one on the National Mall). It's in the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. I highly recommend going there if you're in the DC area. You need to take the Silver line to Innovation Center station, then transfer to the 983 bus that'll take you too the museum. Plan on spending all day out there, partly because it's so big, partly because of the 1 1/2 hours to get there from L'Enfant station. The space shuttle Discovery is the crown jewel of their collection. The B-29 Enola Gay is their black sheep.
Both times I’ve ever been to the Udvar Hazy center Enola Gay had a lot more people around it, asking questions and listening to its story, than there were people looking at Discovery. I don’t even think Bockscar is as iconic of an aircraft as Enola Gay.
@@BrownSofaGamer Side note, Bockscar is on display in the USAF museum in Dayton, OH. Another museum I highly recommend visiting. The only time I was at the Udvar-Hazy center it was almost empty. But then, that was before the Silver Line was even started and it was a spring weekday, before tourist season started. It was also just before the shuttle Enterprise was taken out and replaced with the Discovery.
> the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. On the grounds of Dulles Airport. Plan to spend at least an afternoon. It's _huge,_ and it's chock full of historic aircraft and exhibits. Steven Udvar-Hazy is an immigrant from Hungary who made his fortune in the aircraft leasing business. How lucky are we that he also had a deep love for aviation history?
@@firstcynic92 I haven’t been the the USAF museum yet, but I really want to go! The first time I ever went to the Udvar-Hazy Center it was fairly empty, but the second time was pretty busy although not overly so. I haven’t ever actually gotten to the actual NASM at the National Mall, because the second time I was in DC was recently when it was closed for renovations. Still got to hit both of those museums next!
Rex, can you talk about different aircraft sights? In particular Im wondering why so many pre-war fighters have a telescopic sight but practically none of the successful war-time fighters dont. Thanks
Would you consider doing a video on the Dornier DO-J WAL? I've had an obsession with arctic exploration recently and i've been particualarily fascinated by Amundsen and Ellsworth's attempt at reaching the northpole by air in 1925 using two dornier seaplanes.
I thought I saw a resemblance of the F2F to the Brewster Buffalo, aside from it's portly profile...sure enough, it has the same tail! I wonder if Finland picked up a few?
Love the F2F and F3F. The F3 at the naval museum was flown by James Flatley I think as a young jg. It was recovered from the Pacific off San Diago and fully restored. How this came to be, he was on a landing approach to his carrier, his engine quit and he ditched short of the carrier. He was fine but an accident board determined he had inadvertently shut the fuel off, a statement he flatly (no pun intended) denied. Fast forward to the 90's or early 2000's when this plane was found on the bottom and recovered. They found the fuel shutoff was in the correct position and the Navy went back in and cleared his record posthumously. I am doing this from memory so my names/dates might be wrong.
I've always thought these almost make the Brewster Buffalo look svelte. One of the best looking if the 1930s US fighters IMO was the Curtiss Sparrowhawk. Aside from the trapeze. Especially when they had their land gear removed to reduce weight.
@Rex You’ve definitely struck gold with these interwar “golden age” of aviation videos. Much respect to you. LOVED this video, USN/USMC and USAAC aircraft from this period always captive me. 2 quick questions: 1. Are there any plans to do a video on the Keystone USAAC bombers? 2. You recently did a video with lots of what appear to be high-resolution photos of the Hawker Hawsley, where you pan into and around the photos. May I ask where I can find these photos? More that happy to become a patron. Andy
These are the forerunners of the Wildcat, Hellcat and Bearcat designs running up to & beyond the end of WWII (albeit that a lot of elements of the Bearcat appear to have been copied from the FW-190.) As has already been pointed out in this thread, the lineage from the 1920’s through to the late 1940’s is very obvious
Thank you for this video. When I was a child back in the 60's, my parents gave me several small (about 3" wingspan) highly-detailed plastic toys of 1930's fighters including the Peashooter, the F4B, and the F3F. I had no idea what they were at the time, but I thought the bright paint schemes were really cool. I really enjoy your detailed coverage of these lesser-known aircraft.
I really liked the old Monogram 1/32nd kit...actually two separate kits..one in Navy livery and the other moulded in orange plastic as a Gulf Oil aircraft
Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but these jugly fuglies probably count few such beholders in the world. Funny that the line would eventually lead to the Hellcat, perhaps one of the best looking big-boy fighters of the era. Very cool biplanes regardless. I'd like a replica F3F at some point.
In 1993 in Texas airplane factory in Fort Worth Texas manufactured two Grumman F3 F-3s After inspection by Northrop Grumman, they were allowed to use continuation serial numbers
I was born and brought up in a remote Scottish Island. Three years ago before I got my son to stay with his Aunt and Uncle in the countryside, he worried about the internet speed. When I saw him in the evening he was excited and told me that he had an internet speed four time he had from a a major city in Australia.
Great information. I never really considered the linkage between this plane and the F4 Wildcat. The role of the Brewster Buffalo is also interesting, and the models you use a re e excellent.
1:28 "This was a period when the US Navy was confronted with fairly tight budget restraints..." That basically covers the entire span of time from its creation to just before WW2 :P.
Oh look, I'm early today. Cute bi-planes with morning coffee, I can't complain. Hey, have you thought about Fiat G.50? It's one of the less known planes of early WWII, always put to shade thanks to Spitfire, BF 109, P-40 and Hurricane.
Another Awesome video! 👌 had the luck to see the one(F3F-2) in NAS Pensacola a few years ago and thought it had an intriguing history...being ditched off the coast of San Diego in 1940..and than being rediscovered in 1988 by a US navy submersible than recovered in 1991 and than restored. It's rather impressive, though rather small, up close. Also got some nice photos of it.
A long time ago I played a game called "War in the south Pacific" on a commodore 64 computer with a friend of mine who was also a historian. He played the Japanese while I played the Americans. At the start of the game I found a squadron of F2Fs at the airfield in Espiritu Santo and knowing my friend transferred them to the islands north. They proved quite the surprise to him and interestingly, according to the computer, quite effective against the Zero's. I won the battle, crippled his carriers, but none of the F2Fs survived.
Great work Rex! I love the interwar US aircraft, I really like the pre-war color schemes. Especially the willow green tails on aircraft assigned to USS Ranger (CV-4).
The two place version, built for LeRoy Grumman, was owned by Doug Champlin. It was restored by Tony xxxxxx. Tony was a friend of mine. While i was in the Marine Corps, my Dad sent me a news article about Tony being a hitman who had eliminated 18 people. The Grumman was at an airshow, flown by another friend, Gene Chase. Gene gave the gasboy a ride and showed him some aerobatics. Unfortunately the fuel cap departed, the airplane caught fire, and gene had to explain how to bail out. This took enough time for Gene to get some serious burns. Both chutes opened and both people survived. Afterwards, Tony told me that was a $75000 hole in the ground. He was none too happy! I had a seriously amazing life as a young boy. I was 13 or 14 when this happened, i believe. Now, at 71, the memories are crystal clear, but i never was great at dates. Everything for me is either two weeks or two years ago. Thats about as close as i ever get.
The F3F is a good looking aircraft. There are several videos of examples flying on TH-cam. Also a few on display at a couple of aircraft museums in the US, such as the one at the Naval Aircraft Museum in Florida. Thanks for putting this video out.
I'm interested in how these Grumman fighters compare with other biplane fighters of their generation (more or less) like the Gloster Gladiator, the Polikarpov I-153, and the Fiat Cr32.
omg I just subbed to your channel, and I've gotta say I've been crushing on these planes FOR YEARS, but there just isn't a ton of quality content about them. Thanks for this video!
If you are going for beautiful biplanes may you make videos about these? 1- Breguet XIX (so I can tell in the comments about a funny event with one on Argentine Army service!) 2- Hawker Hart 3- Fokker C.V 4- Henschel 123 Of course any French bizarre ugly duckling is always a lot of fun! I love your channel, especially when you deal with all those crazy contraptions built during the Interwar period. 👏👍
Excellent video. The Grumman line has always been my favourite naval manufacturer. I wonder how the F3F would have fared in a battle with the Italian CR-32 and CR-42, or the Hs 123. It's a pity that there is no 1/32nd scale model of the F3F-2, although you can take the Revell Gulfhawk model and reverse engineer it into a fair model.
@@richardjamieson6681 So i see. Should have searched for the F3F instead of the Gulfhawk. I wasn't aware Revell had issued one. Looks to be a revamp of the original Gulfhawk kit to the F3F3 standard. Oh well, I have over 200 32nd scale kits to build. Not much point in looking for one i'll never get round to building.
Have you tried Contacting the Northrop Grumman Historical Society in Bethpage NY to get information. They have an Archive old records for Grumman, and an F-14 as a Gate Guard....
Blue Angles should fly biplanes for a change. 4:13 - Fighter plane that looks straight out of Mickey Mouse Comics. 18:35 - Starting look like Grumman Wildcat. Just change the wings.
Not de F2F or the F3F but his cousin the Grumman FF, well the export version Canadian Car and Foundry G-23, saw combat in the last stages of the Spanish Civil War with very good performance.
@@HumbugDandy As an Aussie, I'd suggest Rex should go to the Aviation Museum in Perth, Western 🇦🇺 Australia where there's a Catalonia partially restored. Perth has a lot of history associated with WW2 Catalinas that were based on the Swan River and flew the dangerous route to England 🇬🇧.
Going for ugliness I would go for many French and British interwar planes of many types. 😖 German, mostly gorgeous! (Even some of the most bizarre designs. Beauty of evilness ... ?! 🤔)
![Innovative For Five Minutes, Obsolete Forever | Curtiss A-12 Shrike [Aircraft Overview #87]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8XlD04NHBfY/mqdefault.jpg)
F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
My friend i really do enjoy you excellent Aircraft videos....An this old man thanks you 👍
Shoe🇺🇸
Do you also take Helicopter Requests? If so, I'd like to know about the development history and evolution of the iconic Mi-24 Hind, or 'Crocodile' for its initial A variant.
Since you've been looking at the Grumman biplanes, how about doing a video on the Curtiss biplanes of the same era? The Boeing F4B/P-12 would be another good one to compare to them.
Hey so I REALLY like the 3D model approach mixed with photos and design drawings. The changes appear a lot more apparent that way.
I don't understand why you use that criteria for metric and imperial measurements, Metric is still simpler and far easier to grasp than Imperial even if the engineer who designed the planes used Imperial.
At the academy in the 1970’s a retired USN LCDR who was one of our instructors, flew F3F’s out of NAS Alameda told us a story, that when he was a young pilot taking up an F3F after it had some maintenance done on it, found it to be very windy in the cockpit. He finally realized after he took off, that the maintenance crew forgot to put the windshield back! Good thing he had goggles. He would later join the USN LTA division and retired in 1962. He had a lot of great stories. He flew the PBY Catalina too. Quite a naval career.
Your episodes are getting more in-depth and better. You can absolutely see the line going from the 1920s all the way through the end of World War II in the Grumman aircraft. Such a distinctive set of lines.
The word "Grumman" cuts thru the US Navy like its a stick of rock sold at Coney Island
@@emjackson2289 it even made the moon lander that popped itself down in the Sea of Tranquility. So that means it was a naval fighter too as it landed on a sea.
My Dad and I built a Monogram 1/32 scale model of the Gulfhawk when I was a kid in the 1960s. The landing gear would fold up and retract down as you rotated the propeller. This video brought back a lot of fond memories of modeling and watching old classic aviation movies.
I made a 500 mile diversion from a trip out west only because I learned that there was an original F3F at the Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs.
I actually got to touch it, photograph it at length, ask and get answers from museum staff and generally have one of the best times of my life.
I also encountered an F3A..... Yep, a Brewster-built Corsair at the museum (It's the only Brewster-built Corsair left... It's been "blueprinted" i.e. It's been rebuilt to original Chance-Vought specifications on literally everything.)
GO TO THIS MUSEUM!!!!!
Edit: Sidenote: As a Submariner, all of the museum staff- aviators all- were filled with questions about submarines and my career. I probably answered as many questions about submarining as I asked about flying.
Good times...................
I built the Monogram model of the F3F when I was a lad. You would turn the propeller and that would activate the landing gear up and down - putting that together was my first education on engineering. My favorite model I ever made.
..ine if my favorite also..
Definitely some of the most colourful military planes. I remember seeing a collection of 'Yellow Wings' at a model show in the 90s. It got me into making quite a few Rareplanes vac-form kits of these inter war planes. Great video.
Johnny, please see my comment here discussing vertical stabilizer colors assigned to squadrons. Ed Weeden
Our model club president built one in 1/48th and added all the photo etch and resin available incuding turn buckles and EZ line. Lots of scratch building finished it up and it turned into a show winner.
Beautiful little fighter, when i started flying in War Thunder RB air mode it was my favorite Bi Plane, climbs like an Angel , turns good , good armarment.
Accurate Miniatures made a very good/detailed 1:48 Kit.
same, some reserve biplanes arguable pack mroe punch, but I loved the F3F, it handled WAY better than any other biplane,a nd I ahve punched up agaisnt 2.3 fairly often
You can see the lineage of the Wildcat and Hellcat in this bird.
23:29
That cracked-up Buffalo was flown by none other than a young Lt. John "Jimmy" Thach, who later went on to better feats of airmanship. Not the least of which was developing the Thach Weave tactic of dealing with Japanese Zeroes.
You have made at least one subscriber VERY happy with this video.
There is a mockup of a f3f in the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Mineola Long Island NY. The museum is only about 3 miles from the old Grumman iron works. When I was a kid it was being built by former Grumman Employees in the early 90s. It is complete with a landing gear and engine demonstration.
Talking about what's been written about these, Dad was in the Navy & briefly a pilot until eye trouble developed: he got aviation magazines and built models for years after he had to stop flying & I remember some air magazine in 1970s having article titled "Grumman's Biplane Beer Barrels."
Gotta love a Grumman! 😁 The fathers and grandfathers of the Grumman Cats. 😸
Pretty remarkable how sturdy the design is when it's one of the very few biplane designs that transition well into a monoplane!
It's up there next to the British equivalent, the Hawker Hurricane which was the monoplane version of the biplane Hawker Fury!
I believe this is when people began the “Grumman Ironworks” joke / nickname.
Before our Avenger was restored to original WWII marine markings and configuration (turret / bomb bay doors, etc) she was a Canadian water bomber for Con-Air. Apparently a pilot misjudged a drop and flew the port wing into a telephone pole once.
The plane snapped the telephone pole off, and to this day you can see the patch on the leading edge of the wing.
When people ask if I get nervous flying in a 3/4-century-old plane to air shows, I usually just walk them over to the wing and show them the patch. 🙈
And their was a biplane version of the Hurricane… the Hillson FH-40.
A number of the next generation propeller aircraft also became jet powered (P-51 to FJ-1 Fury & Spitfire XIV to Attacker)
Excellent point!
Grumman really did build them pretty, from this all the way to the Mighty And Glorious Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
It still is mind bending when one realizes that within the career of some pilots of this biplane leaving service, that Jet aircraft would be serving in some of the same ships and top speeds would go from the 250 mph range to well past the speed of sound.
I love the F3F and would put it up there with the Gladiator and Falco. Maybe not as agile, but I reckon it would leave them behind in a dive. The 2 speed blower would help at altitude too.
A real hot rod of a biplane.
I can't disagree with that statement! All were pinnacles of biplane design, I think the CR-42 just had the edge over the Gloster Gladiator though.
@@neilfoster814 Doesn't the Gladiator have a fixed pitch propeller, which almost certainly would make it worse than both the F3F and the Cr.42.
@@martijn9568 you're correct, but from what I've read both fighters were quite evenly matched.
I'm no expert but would guess that a variable prop is not such a big benefit on 1930s biplanes.
I can imagine the F3F needing one to get maximum low speed control for carrier landings.
These were indeed the end of Grumman MILITARY biplanes, but they would develop another biplane for aerial chemicals application (crop duster) in 1957...the Grumman Ag Cat. Funny enough the Ag Cat would become the basis of the later Air Tractor, which is itself the basis for a CAS aircraft proposal for USAF Special Operations. So it kinda came full circle in a severely roundabout way
WOW!!! You remember the AgCat!!@
Shiny 1930's aircraft what more could you need?
Great video (and I love the 3D renderings!) I never knew about the Gulfhawks. But you're right -- there's a surprising lack of data and pictures about the FF, F2F, and F3F. This video helps to correct that.
I love the bright color biplanes of this era.
My favorites are the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawks where every plane in the group had a different trim color.
I always found that small closed cabin biplanes had their appeal.
...especially the ones with retractable landing gear.
Dad was posted to Yorktown in 1940. His first crew picture has VMF-5's F3F's in the background. His second crew photo has F4Fs...just before he went to flight school as an enlisted pilot (PBYs). There was an F3F that showed up at Oshkosh (1979?) but later crashed. I heard it was rebuilt.
Just as a matter of explanation, the yellow upper wings were not simply a matter of mere decoration They were painted that way to make the aircraft easier to spot if it had to ditch in the sea. In addition, the red "V" on the upper wing was also there for a reason. During the 1930s aviators placed a great deal of stress upon precision formation flying. As a result, Navy Aviators used the "V" shaped stripes painted on the upper wings as guides for lining up on each other while flying in formation.
Nice video! I find these fighters, together with other biplanes of its generation like the British Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Fury, the Italian Fiat Cr.32-Cr.42, the French Blériot-SPAD S.510 or the German Heinkel He.51 really interesting.
Wonderful video - slight correction though, as the Gulfhawk 2 is actually at the other air and space museum (Udvar Hazy Center) in Chantilly, VA and not D.C. I wouldn’t normally mention this, but I go there quite frequently as it’s only a few minutes away. 👍
Funny how these designs almost immediately resembled the Wildcat as a mid-monoplane, though I had never seen the lineage so clearly till this video.
I’m lucky enough to help maintain and operate a Grumman TBM Avenger, and even in the case of that aircraft, the lineage is still clear.
The mention of toughness is funny as well, as I’d imagine the nickname of the “Grumman ironworks” likely originated during the time of these designs, not the later “cats” and Avengers. They made some great aircraft, and I proudly sport a “Grumman Ironworks” patch on my flight suit when I crew her during air shows, etc.
5 : 07
Stability:
All fuselages produce an unstable moment which is proportional to the volume of the fuselage. The part stabilizing the directional stability is a long moment arm from the CG to the vertical, along span of the vertical and a large stability derivative of the airfoil and a high aspect ratio.
This aircraft has all prospects of lacking stability, especially the fat fuselage.
It looks so cute!
Everytime you say "Aluminum" it makes me smile. That aside, great episode, like always.
The US Navy's Flying Chiefs wore the rating Chief Aviation Pilot (APC), with facsimile gold wings as the rating mark. The rating was instituted due to the Navy's shortage of officer pilots inter-war, when commissions were limited and officers entered flight school only after 2 years aboard surface ships.
The hit 1932 movie _Hell Divers_ starred Clark Gable and Wallace Beery as APCs aboard USS _Saratoga._
28:45. Just to note, the Gulfhawk 2 is not in the DC Air and Space museum (the one on the National Mall). It's in the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.
I highly recommend going there if you're in the DC area. You need to take the Silver line to Innovation Center station, then transfer to the 983 bus that'll take you too the museum. Plan on spending all day out there, partly because it's so big, partly because of the 1 1/2 hours to get there from L'Enfant station.
The space shuttle Discovery is the crown jewel of their collection. The B-29 Enola Gay is their black sheep.
Both times I’ve ever been to the Udvar Hazy center Enola Gay had a lot more people around it, asking questions and listening to its story, than there were people looking at Discovery. I don’t even think Bockscar is as iconic of an aircraft as Enola Gay.
@@BrownSofaGamer Side note, Bockscar is on display in the USAF museum in Dayton, OH. Another museum I highly recommend visiting.
The only time I was at the Udvar-Hazy center it was almost empty. But then, that was before the Silver Line was even started and it was a spring weekday, before tourist season started. It was also just before the shuttle Enterprise was taken out and replaced with the Discovery.
> the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.
On the grounds of Dulles Airport. Plan to spend at least an afternoon. It's _huge,_ and it's chock full of historic aircraft and exhibits.
Steven Udvar-Hazy is an immigrant from Hungary who made his fortune in the aircraft leasing business. How lucky are we that he also had a deep love for aviation history?
@@firstcynic92 I haven’t been the the USAF museum yet, but I really want to go! The first time I ever went to the Udvar-Hazy Center it was fairly empty, but the second time was pretty busy although not overly so. I haven’t ever actually gotten to the actual NASM at the National Mall, because the second time I was in DC was recently when it was closed for renovations. Still got to hit both of those museums next!
I own a Grumman gun camera box, and I prize it has the my favorite part of my collection.
I just wished people knew the plane more
Great video. I remember back in the 1970s, monogram offered both the Gulfhawk and F3F in a 1/32 scale plastic kit.
Thanks for the great plane history as always. The 1940 Robert Taylor film "Flight Command" features this plane extensively.
You mentioned the Boeing F4B. That and the Army version, the P-12, are worthy of your attention.
If I have missed a video about these, I apologize.
Rex, can you talk about different aircraft sights? In particular Im wondering why so many pre-war fighters have a telescopic sight but practically none of the successful war-time fighters dont. Thanks
Combat aircraft in the interwar period would probably be shredded in the 40’s but by Golly they looks aesthetically pleasing
Back in the 1970s, Monogram had a 1/32 scale F3F model. If built correctly, the landing gear could be retracted/extended using the propeller.
2:46 a few times the water flotation bags inflated during flight and they were eventually removed.
Would you consider doing a video on the Dornier DO-J WAL? I've had an obsession with arctic exploration recently and i've been particualarily fascinated by Amundsen and Ellsworth's attempt at reaching the northpole by air in 1925 using two dornier seaplanes.
I thought I saw a resemblance of the F2F to the Brewster Buffalo, aside from it's portly profile...sure enough, it has the same tail! I wonder if Finland picked up a few?
I always loved Grumman aircraft.
Good one. Learned a lot from the questions
The F3F-2 is my favorite biplane fighter. Thanks!
A similar plane the Grumman FF-1 saw combat in Spain. Of course she was a two seater.
Love the F2F and F3F. The F3 at the naval museum was flown by James Flatley I think as a young jg. It was recovered from the Pacific off San Diago and fully restored. How this came to be, he was on a landing approach to his carrier, his engine quit and he ditched short of the carrier. He was fine but an accident board determined he had inadvertently shut the fuel off, a statement he flatly (no pun intended) denied. Fast forward to the 90's or early 2000's when this plane was found on the bottom and recovered. They found the fuel shutoff was in the correct position and the Navy went back in and cleared his record posthumously. I am doing this from memory so my names/dates might be wrong.
That's a really nice computer rendering of the plane. Thanks for the vid.
I've always thought these almost make the Brewster Buffalo look svelte. One of the best looking if the 1930s US fighters IMO was the Curtiss Sparrowhawk. Aside from the trapeze. Especially when they had their land gear removed to reduce weight.
@Rex You’ve definitely struck gold with these interwar “golden age” of aviation videos. Much respect to you.
LOVED this video, USN/USMC and USAAC aircraft from this period always captive me. 2 quick questions:
1. Are there any plans to do a video on the Keystone USAAC bombers?
2. You recently did a video with lots of what appear to be high-resolution photos of the Hawker Hawsley, where you pan into and around the photos. May I ask where I can find these photos? More that happy to become a patron. Andy
These are the forerunners of the Wildcat, Hellcat and Bearcat designs running up to & beyond the end of WWII (albeit that a lot of elements of the Bearcat appear to have been copied from the FW-190.)
As has already been pointed out in this thread, the lineage from the 1920’s through to the late 1940’s is very obvious
Thank you for this video. When I was a child back in the 60's, my parents gave me several small (about 3" wingspan) highly-detailed plastic toys of 1930's fighters including the Peashooter, the F4B, and the F3F. I had no idea what they were at the time, but I thought the bright paint schemes were really cool. I really enjoy your detailed coverage of these lesser-known aircraft.
What a sendoff for the Navies biplane fighters for this to be the last, always loved these aircraft, thanks for making the vid!
I really liked the old Monogram 1/32nd kit...actually two separate kits..one in Navy livery and the other moulded in orange plastic as a Gulf Oil aircraft
@RexsHangar >>> 👍👍
Well researched and well presented. Great stuff!
For me an early 1940s Boeing Stearman with navy livery (blue fuselage, yellow wings) is practically irresistible aviation appeal.
Great video 👍
Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but these jugly fuglies probably count few such beholders in the world. Funny that the line would eventually lead to the Hellcat, perhaps one of the best looking big-boy fighters of the era.
Very cool biplanes regardless. I'd like a replica F3F at some point.
In 1993 in Texas airplane factory in Fort Worth Texas manufactured two Grumman F3 F-3s
After inspection by Northrop Grumman, they were allowed to use continuation serial numbers
The peak of the biplane
Nah
Fiat CR.42 or possibly Gloster Gladiator would have that distinction.
@Aqua Fyre no retractible landing gear??
@Aqua Fyre It was rage bait lol
I honestly cannot belive people got so mad so easily over a comment about an egg shaped interwar aircraft lol
"But the story of the F4F..."
I knew that was coming, I knew the Wildcat wouldn't be in this video, but I am so READY.
I was born and brought up in a remote Scottish Island. Three years ago before I got my son to stay with his Aunt and Uncle in the countryside, he worried about the internet speed. When I saw him in the evening he was excited and told me that he had an internet speed four time he had from a a major city in Australia.
Great information. I never really considered the linkage between this plane and the F4 Wildcat. The role of the Brewster Buffalo is also interesting, and the models you use a re e excellent.
Absolutely in love with this style of landing gear
1:28 "This was a period when the US Navy was confronted with fairly tight budget restraints..."
That basically covers the entire span of time from its creation to just before WW2 :P.
Oh look, I'm early today. Cute bi-planes with morning coffee, I can't complain.
Hey, have you thought about Fiat G.50? It's one of the less known planes of early WWII, always put to shade thanks to Spitfire, BF 109, P-40 and Hurricane.
I would like to fly that Grumman bi-wing.
I love how these planes look.
That the F3F morphed into the great F4F says a lot. Excellent video.
Another Awesome video! 👌 had the luck to see the one(F3F-2) in NAS Pensacola a few years ago and thought it had an intriguing history...being ditched off the coast of San Diego in 1940..and than being rediscovered in 1988 by a US navy submersible than recovered in 1991 and than restored. It's rather impressive, though rather small, up close. Also got some nice photos of it.
A long time ago I played a game called "War in the south Pacific" on a commodore 64 computer with a friend of mine who was also a historian. He played the Japanese while I played the Americans. At the start of the game I found a squadron of F2Fs at the airfield in Espiritu Santo and knowing my friend transferred them to the islands north. They proved quite the surprise to him and interestingly, according to the computer, quite effective against the Zero's. I won the battle, crippled his carriers, but none of the F2Fs survived.
Great work Rex! I love the interwar US aircraft, I really like the pre-war color schemes. Especially the willow green tails on aircraft assigned to USS Ranger (CV-4).
The two place version, built for LeRoy Grumman, was owned by Doug Champlin. It was restored by Tony xxxxxx. Tony was a friend of mine. While i was in the Marine Corps, my Dad sent me a news article about Tony being a hitman who had eliminated 18 people.
The Grumman was at an airshow, flown by another friend, Gene Chase.
Gene gave the gasboy a ride and showed him some aerobatics. Unfortunately the fuel cap departed, the airplane caught fire, and gene had to explain how to bail out. This took enough time for Gene to get some serious burns.
Both chutes opened and both people survived.
Afterwards, Tony told me that was a $75000 hole in the ground. He was none too happy!
I had a seriously amazing life as a young boy. I was 13 or 14 when this happened, i believe. Now, at 71, the memories are crystal clear, but i never was great at dates. Everything for me is either two weeks or two years ago. Thats about as close as i ever get.
The F3F is a good looking aircraft. There are several videos of examples flying on TH-cam. Also a few on display at a couple of aircraft museums in the US, such as the one at the Naval Aircraft Museum in Florida. Thanks for putting this video out.
Oh! I saw the orange Gulfhawk 2 at the Udvar Hazy center last month. Didn't realize that it was part of a long naval biplane lineage.
I'm interested in how these Grumman fighters compare with other biplane fighters of their generation (more or less) like the Gloster Gladiator, the Polikarpov I-153, and the Fiat Cr32.
Interesting how Grumman's Lunar Module landing gear is rather similar to Grumman's F2-3-4F landing gear!
omg I just subbed to your channel, and I've gotta say I've been crushing on these planes FOR YEARS, but there just isn't a ton of quality content about them. Thanks for this video!
If you are going for beautiful biplanes may you make videos about these?
1- Breguet XIX (so I can tell in the comments about a funny event with one on Argentine Army service!)
2- Hawker Hart
3- Fokker C.V
4- Henschel 123
Of course any French bizarre ugly duckling is always a lot of fun!
I love your channel, especially when you deal with all those crazy contraptions built during the Interwar period. 👏👍
Excellent video. The Grumman line has always been my favourite naval manufacturer. I wonder how the F3F would have fared in a battle with the Italian CR-32 and CR-42, or the Hs 123. It's a pity that there is no 1/32nd scale model of the F3F-2, although you can take the Revell Gulfhawk model and reverse engineer it into a fair model.
I've got an F3F-3 in 1:32nd in a box somewhere in the attic. I think it was Monogram although it may have been Revell
@@richardjamieson6681 So i see. Should have searched for the F3F instead of the Gulfhawk. I wasn't aware Revell had issued one. Looks to be a revamp of the original Gulfhawk kit to the F3F3 standard. Oh well, I have over 200 32nd scale kits to build. Not much point in looking for one i'll never get round to building.
Thank you for another informative video. Looking forward to you upcoming video on the last Italian biplane of WWII. (The Falco)
There is Museum near me here in Colorado Springs, they have an airworthy F3F in their collection and it is gorgeous.
your videos made me start modeling again, a hobby that i somehow forgot when becoming "adult"
i realy enjoy your content, thank you for your time :)
Have you tried Contacting the Northrop Grumman Historical Society in Bethpage NY to get information. They have an Archive old records for Grumman, and an F-14 as a Gate Guard....
Blue Angles should fly biplanes for a change.
4:13 - Fighter plane that looks straight out of Mickey Mouse Comics.
18:35 - Starting look like Grumman Wildcat. Just change the wings.
I love all these recent 3D renditions
Not de F2F or the F3F but his cousin the Grumman FF, well the export version Canadian Car and Foundry G-23, saw combat in the last stages of the Spanish Civil War with very good performance.
One of my favorites, and you really did it justice.
Catalina when?
To quote Rex, *_"The story of the Catalina is one for another day."_*
There is a lot of work to do if one wants to do the type justice. Patience....... Wait for the Black Cats.....
@@HumbugDandy As an Aussie, I'd suggest Rex should go to the Aviation Museum in Perth, Western 🇦🇺 Australia where there's a Catalonia partially restored. Perth has a lot of history associated with WW2 Catalinas that were based on the Swan River and flew the dangerous route to England 🇬🇧.
When I was a kid I had an F3F model. Turning the prop extended or retracted the landing gear.
Another amazing video!
When do we get a list of the Top 5 ugliest German aircrafts?
Bold of you to assume there are even 5 ugly aircraft
@@MaticTheProto not even bold at all, the Germans made a lot of ugly shit
Going for ugliness I would go for many French and British interwar planes of many types. 😖
German, mostly gorgeous! (Even some of the most bizarre designs. Beauty of evilness ... ?! 🤔)
It's just variants of the BF109. I love that flying brick, but it's not exactly aesthetic.
@@MaticTheProto
Ju 86
Ju 87 (early models)
Fw 189
Fi 156
Ar 232
There’s 5
😁
How did Carlo manage to get the stars reversed on the CGI model?!? 😅
The plastic model of this was my all time favorite.
As always another great video.
The F2F looks like a wildcat with an extra wing
Accurate Miniatures made a terrific 1/48 kit of the F3F. I've got to build mine.
These are my favourite aircraft of their era.
Excelente! Ya se adivina el Wildcat y el Hellcat.
Beautiful photo of USS Ranger at 17:34.
American Beauty is an awesome album.