AIR: Hellcat

The U.S. Navy's most famed fighter plane—the hunchbacked, stubby Grumman F4F Wildcat—is a back number in aerial warfare. The Navy gladly made this admission last week. It could afford to. Besides its fancy, high-powered (2,000 h.p.) new Vought Corsair, it also has another brand-new fighter in service around the world.

The newest fighter is a direct descendant of the Wildcat and a factory mate of the Navy's crack Avenger torpedo plane. Its name: the Grumman Hellcat. This and little more the Navy announced, along with the news that a task force had crept...

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