First flight of WestPac Restorations' F7F-3N Tigercat, which has been on display at the National Museum of World War II Aviation took place June 7 at the Colorado Springs airport. Pilot Steve Hinton took the former U.S. Marine Corps fighter for a 15-minute flight. After a number of test flights, it was flown to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Airventure 2013.  If you attended Airventure, you may have seen the Tigercat in the warbird area or at show center.

The dark blue, twin-engine World War II-era fighter, bearing white stars-and-bars insignia, had not flown since the 1950s but its first flight in Colorado Springs was uneventful. In a post-flight interview, Hinton said he was "in awe of what a beautiful restoration it is. It's exceptional, beautiful." He said he has "flown five or six or seven of these, and it flies like a Tigercat. It feels really good, and they followed the book correctly" in restoring it to flying condition. "The engines run nice."

WestPac acquired the Tigercat in 1991 and began restoring it about two years ago, according to Bill Klaers, WestPac's president.  It's one of the few that remain of several hundred that were built.  According to one count, seven are airworthy and five are on display or being restored.  This Tigercat bears the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics number 80375 and FAA registration NX379AK.  Bill did all of the engine runs and preparation work prior to first flight.  He also flew the Tigercat several times in preparation for its departure to Oshkosh.

Hinton, a renowned air racing pilot who flies Tigercats in aerobatic demonstrations, said he used Colorado Springs Airport's 11,000 foot Runway 17R.  He said he chose "an intermediate power setting, a climb power setting" and let it "accelerate up so there are no big surprises, flight controls or whatever."  In the 40-or-so years he's been doing this kind of thing, he said, "I don't think I've ever had a real bad first flight.  I've had a few little issues in all the test flights we've done, but first flights are very, very conservative."

The 450-mph Tigercat is powered by two 2,000hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines. Hinton said that he wasn't initially aware of it, but that the engines are the same ones that were installed when Grumman delivered the Tigercat to the government. That was in 1945. "I think that's a pretty cool thing, the original units." He said the engines were overhauled by Anderson Airmotive Inc. in Grangeville, Idaho, which specializes in radial power plants. WestPac began engine runs on the Tigercat on April 30. The FAA recently approved the airplane for flight. An inspector said no issues were found.

After takeoff, at about 12:14 p.m., Hinton took the Tigercat to between 10,000 and 11,000 feet and about 230 mph. He said he ran the engines at low power, then cruise power, felt the flight controls and cycled the landing gear. He watched the engines closely "to make sure they're going to do what they're supposed to do. It's all about reliability." Upon landing back on 17R at about 12:29 p.m., Hinton held the nose high to let airspeed bleed off and the nose wheel touch.  This Tigercat, unlike many others, was never used as a fire bomber, so "it's a blessing because the airplane isn't all worn out" as many such planes are, Hinton said. "My job is to come here and just give a little of my perspective." He is president of Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, Calif., and Valle-Grand Canyon, Ariz. He owns Fighter Rebuilders, also of Chino.

Grumman built 364 Tigercats at its Bethpage, Long Island, N.Y., plant between 1943 and 1946. Records on file at WestPac show that Tigercat 80375 was accepted by the Navy on March 26, 1945, then put into storage at Litchfield Park, Ariz. On Jan. 29, 1951, it was assigned to Marine Night Fighter Squadron VMF(N)-531 at Cherry Point, N.C.; on March 26, 1952, it went to VMF(N)-533 at Cherry Point.  During World War II, the latter squadron deployed with Tigercats to Okinawa, but it didn't see action. It arrived on Aug. 14, the day before Japan surrendered. Tigercats did see action during the Korean War. VMF(N)-513 claimed two Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes.

All Tigercats were retired from service in 1954. Before retirement, 80375 was assigned to the Anacostia naval air station in Washington, D.C., where officers used it to log flying time. It was then sent to the gunnery range at Dahlgren, Va., but apparently was parked out of the line of fire and sat in the open for a number of years. It next went to the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va. From there, it went to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. WestPac acquired it in 1991.

The Tigercat was known as a "'hot to handle'" fighter that "could be unforgiving in a variety of situations," according to Robert F. Dorr, writing at www.leatherneck.com in 2004. "Marines who mastered this aircraft were entitled to feel they were excellent pilots." Former Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer has said the Tigercat was 71 mph faster than Grumman's more famous Hellcat "and had twice its rate of climb, easily [meeting] the Navy's requirements of 451 mph at 21,000 feet."

  

First flight of the Tigercat was on Nov. 2, 1943. Meyer flew it for the first time on Nov. 10, 1943. "The noise of the 2,000hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-10B engines just outside the thin canopy was most impressive," Meyer wrote years later. "I never made a first flight that was as powerfully soul-stirring as the first flight I made in the XF7F-1....Even my first flights in jets weren't as memorable. It was mind-boggling to keep this eight-gun fighter in a 30-degree climb until it attained its service ceiling. In comparison, the soon-to-be-famous six-gun F6F-3 Hellcat fighter I had been testing suddenly seemed like an elderly pussycat."