ALTHOUGH CONCEIVED IN 1941, by the time the twin-engine Grumman F7F Tigercat hit the streets, it never saw action in WW II. The XF7F prototypes first flew in December 1943, and the first production models were delivered to the Marines in April 1944. Some F7F-3N and -3Ps did deploy to Okinawa during the very end of the War but never tangled with the Japanese owing to the then diminished threat. It was fast and powerful and would have been a formidable foe to enemy aircraft. Although the F7F was too late for the “Big One,” it did see intense action some five years later in Korea.
Species of cats and their fangs
The Marines initially ordered 500 F7Fs from Grumman, and the two prototypes were designated as the XF7F-1. The first 34 production units were single-seat F7F-1s, and they had
