Hellcat Night Fighter
#1

Since all of the WIP thread request to not post requests and I don't see a 4.09 request thread I'll dump this here.

Would it be possible to look into having a night fighter version of the Hellcat?

The Night Fighter Corsair is really great but the Corsair did not serve in full sized Squadron service aboard carriers during World War II. Night fighter Corsairs were attached to "Day" carriers in detachments of 4 to 8 planes.

The first three full sized Squadrons of Navy Night fighters ( VF(N)-76, VF(N)-77, and VF(N)-78 )
operated the F6F-3E and soon after the 3N. These squadrons were assigned to Day carriers in 1944.

Due to the extra hours put on flight deck crews to run normal operations dawn to dusk and then having to also run Night Fighters afterdark, the decision was made to designate full time night carriers.

The 3E had a radar pod under the right wing:

[Image: F6F-3E.jpg]

Later the F6F-3N and 5N had the familiar streamlined in-wing "nose."

The first full sized Night Carrier deck was USS Enterprise CV(N)-6, Her airgroup used the 3N and later 5N versions of the Hellcat. Later Saratoga was designated a Night carrier and oerated the night Hellcat as well.

The 5N and late delivered 3N's could have both inboard .50cal's replaced with 20mm cannons with 200 rounds of ammunition.

Just a thought,

[Image: AAASig.jpg]
[Image: AAALatin.jpg]
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