F6F Hellcat at War

Descended from the F4F Wildcat (and sometimes called the Wildcat’s “big brother”), the Grumman F6F Hellcat debuted with the Pacific Fleet in mid-1943 and soon was taking on Japanese Zero fighters.  Over the next two years, the Hellcat proved to be the most successful fighter aircraft in naval history--with more than 5,000 air-to-air kills in the Pacific, and the highest kill/loss ratio of any American fighter plane in Army, Navy, or Marine service during World War II.  Taking advantage of the…