F7F Tigercats over North Korea Grumman’s Svelte Postwar Killer

The Tigercat is usually listed among “favorite airplanes flown” by all who have logged time in it. Here, pilot John Sessions poses for the camera when Bad Kitty was owned by the Historic Flight Foundation; it is now owned by Comanche Fighters, Inc. (Photo by John Dibbs/planepicture.com)

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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...

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