As I put the finishing touches to last weeks Newsletter, I received some rather distressing news regarding one of the best loved Warbirds in the UK – In fact, it was so distressing that I had to do a little more research, before allowing myself to believe the rumours. Unfortunately, they turned out to be true and the magnificent Fighter Collection Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat has been sold to a US collector and has already left Duxford. It was only in Newsletter edition 366 that we were rejoicing in the fact that TFC had managed to get this magnificent machine back in the air again, after a five year period of problems and concerted maintenance work, but even then, there were distressing rumours that the aircraft was destined to be heading stateside in the near future. Having enjoyed a number of displays by the aircraft during 2014, I now feel particularly fortunate and will cherish these photographs – they could be marking the last occasion that a Hellcat flies in UK skies!
Goodbye to the Fighter Collection’s Zero killer
The Grumman F6F Hellcat was undoubtedly one of the most important aircraft of the Second World War and specifically in the Pacific Theatre. It was a huge leap forward in aviation technology and quickly built a reputation as a ‘Zero killer’, although it was not particular as to the type of enemy aircraft it vanquished – the Hellcat was quite simply the finest fighter of the Pacific war. The TFC example was a very rare aircraft indeed and the UK enthusiast was very fortunate that Stephen Grey and his team allowed us to marvel at the capabilities of this magnificent aircraft over the years. It arrived in the UK at the back end of 1990, looking a little the worse for wear, if I am honest. Wearing a slightly dubious Fleet Air Arm scheme, the aircraft was due for a much more interesting future, once the TFC engineers got their hands on it in earnest. During the process of stripping the aircraft for a new paint scheme, TFC researches managed to piece together the service history of this impressive aircraft. She was assigned to US Navy VF-6 ‘Felix’ squadron, on board USS Intrepid, where she became the mount of naval aviator Lieutenant Alex Vraciu, who was to go on to achieve great things.
TFC Hellcat – Ace in a day aircraft
Alex Vraciu was to become one of the most successful fighter pilots in the US Navy and he was to use the Hellcat to devastating effect. He quickly achieved ‘Ace’ status and was to eventually end up as the fourth most successful US Navy fighter pilot, with 19 aerial victories and 21 ground victories. Without doubt, the most interesting aspect about the TFC aircraft is that Vraciu used their very aircraft to score no less than nine of these victories. His most celebrated day was when he became one of the few fighter pilots who gained the coveted status of ‘Ace in a day’ – during the Battle of the Philippine Sea (which was later referred to as the ‘Great Mariana’s Turkey Shoot’), Vraciu managed to shoot down SIX Japanese Yokosuka D4Y dive-bombers, in just eight frantic minutes. As you may well imagine, the US Navy publicity machine made full use of this feat and there are some famous pictures of a happy (and very young) Vraciu being congratulated on his achievement by his crew mates.
Having discovered the history of their Hellcat, The Fighter Collection contacted Vraciu with the news and he was instrumental in providing service records and colour scheme information for the project. He was also invited to Duxford for Stephen Grey’s first flight in the Hellcat, which was an extremely emotional occasion for all concerned. He even presented Mr Grey with his original flying gloves for the first flight, which added a really authentic touch to this historic event.
Unfortunately, the sad news of the TFC Hellcat leaving Duxford is made all the more poignant as Mr Vraciu passed away recently, aged 96. As a little mark of respect, have a quick look at the picture of a happy, smiling Vraciu after his six victory haul and raise a glass, or a cup of tea to an ordinary man, who was to achieve extraordinary things, under the clouds of war.
Without doubt, the loss of the TFC Hellcat will be a significant one for the UK historic aviation movement. Our loss will certainly be America’s gain and although we will most definitely miss her, we wish her well as she returns home. Many of us will be extremely thankful that we managed to see her perform in UK skies, over the years and we thank the TFC team for making this happen. I suppose that she was coveted stateside, as much as she was loved here, but at least we had her for perhaps the most significant period of her post war history. Let’s just take one final look at this magnificent aeroplane, which was one of only a handful of historic aeroplanes that can claim to have genuine combat credentials.
Grumman Hellcat as a die-cast model
You may be surprised to hear that the Hellcat is a relatively recent arrival on the die-cast scene. As one of the premier fighters of WWII, you would think that we would have had plenty of alternatives to choose from, but this is definitely not the case. For a long time, the only die-cast alternative came in the 1/72nd scale Matchbox fighters range and as few of these models made it to the UK, they were as expensive, as they were difficult to get hold of. In 1/48th scale, Armour/Frankin Mint had the F6F in their inventory, but these were again rather elusive and have now disappeared with the demise of this range. The die-cast Hellcat started to get serious with the release of the Dragon Wings model, which was truly magnificent, although it was plagued by the multitude of additional parts that had to be attached by the buyer. Once again, for a number of reasons, these models proved to be rather difficult to obtain in the UK and anyone who has them in their collections can boast a fine example of this awesome fighter.
Bringing the Hellcat right up to date is the territory of Hobbymaster, with a little bit of Corgi – what I mean by that is that the Hellcat appeared in the Corgi Predator range, but after this range ended, the tooling was incorporated and became one of the inaugural toolings in the 1/72nd scale Hobbymaster range. These are excellent models and some very rare models have appeared in this range. As with most things though, the best has been saved until last. Last year, Hobbymaster launched their impressive 1/32nd scale Hellcat, which is truly a masterclass in die-cast aviation modelling – it is quite superb. Featuring a number of innovations for a die-cast model, these are without doubt, the most desirable representations of the Hellcat for the die-cast collector to consider and with very low production numbers, they really are something special in any collection of aviation models. They also prove that there is still life in the 1/32nd scale sector, which is encouraging, as there are still some significant aircraft to produce.
Our latest DEAL OF THE DAY offer featured all of our remaining Grumman F6F Hellcat models in the warehouse, including an irresistible half price offer on our remaining 1/32nd scale Hobbymaster Hellcats (including the superb TFC Vraciu Hellcat) – unfortunately, we only had two examples of each model and as I write this Newsletter, one of each model has already been snapped up and I suspect that the others will go any time now! As for the 1/72nd scale examples, most of these are now extremely difficult to obtain and we have very small numbers of each model available – if the magnificent Grumman Hellcat is your thing, please head for our DEAL OF THE DAY section and grab one of our last remaining models. Here is one of the 1/72nd scale models on offer this weekend!
Latest Flying Tigers OFFER OF THE WEEK
Our latest warehouse raid has resulted in us offering some spectacular bargain prices on an iconic British jet aircraft. in a perverse quirk of fate, this magnificent aircraft has been out of service with the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm for over 4 years now, yet continues to provide excellent support to US Marine Corps units – go figure! The Hawker Siddeley/BAe Harrier/AV-8B is not only one of the best loved jet aircraft ever to enter service, but also has to be considered as one of the most strategically useful aircraft of the modern era. As soon as the Harrier was removed from RAF service, an international incident arose which required a military intervention – one to which the Harrier would have been ideally suited. Since that date, there have been numerous other occasions when the Harrier would have been the ideal solution to a military question, but we were forced to use more expensive and less appropriate options – unfortunately, no one in government will ever be accountable for this stupid decision and we continue to eye the US Harriers with envy and wait patiently for F-35!
I am sorry, I forgot myself for a moment there – back to normal now! The Harrier has always been amongst the most popular models at Flying Tigers and Hobbymaster produced a fine model of the later incarnation of this incredible machine. With many of the previous releases having long since sold out, I would expect this weekends offer to be an extremely popular one with our readers and it would be a good idea to click on this OFFER OF THE WEEK link to see what we have available. The model featured below is HA2609, which is a US Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B II machine, in the colours of VMA-542 ‘The Tigers’. Providing the US Marines with a highly effective close air support option, the AV-8B is still an important part of their inventory and has been used during Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. The model itself includes an impressive array of weapons options, along with the ability to display the aircraft with undercarriage deployed, or in flying configuration. As is often the case with these offers, we do not have many models available and time will certainly be of the essence – to view our last remaining Harrier stocks and secure a handsome die-cast discount, please head for our latest OFFER OF THE WEEK.
We end our latest Newsletter with a quick look at the models that have been offered on our DEAL OF THE DAY feature over the past week. It is always nice to give something back to our loyal collectors, who have been kind enough to support what we have been doing over the past eight years and I have to say that it is proving to be extremely popular. On Monday evening, we offered a magnificent 1/48th scale Boeing Stearman, which is currently on strength with The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum and is an absolutely magnificent piece of die-cast. The model is beautifully finished, with highly detailed propellor and engine and benefits from full wire rigging. Once bitten, always smitten – these really are fantastic models and will certainly have you coming back for more!
Tuesday nights offer was a real treat for classic US attack jet fanatics, as we offered our entire remaining stock of Douglas A-4 Skyhawk models – this was definitely our most popular offering, as many collectors took the opportunity to shore up this area of their collections. With many models already sold out and the rest fast approaching it, please click on this SKYHAWK link, before you miss out! Continuing with this section led approach, Wednesday night saw us offer our remaining North American Harvard/Texan stocks, which again found favour with the collector. The Hobbymaster Harvard is a fabulous little model and we are very much down to the last few examples now, particularly as our offer prices are extremely attractive – as with the Skyhawks, our last remaining models can be snapped up now!
Finally for this week, visitors to the Flying Tigers website will have noticed that we have decided to clear out our remaining stocks of 1/400th scale military aircraft models and their are some real bargains to be had. This once popular scale has taken something of a back seat over recent years, but there are still significant numbers of collectors who are loyal to 1/400th scale models. We now only have one C-17 Globemaster III and one Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, but I have to say that both are stunning little models. The C-5 in-particular is a monster and even at this smaller scale, it is still a very impressive model indeed – our last few models are being made available at extremely attractive prices, so click on the link above and see if we can’t tempt you this weekend.
That’s it for another week. I hope that we are all the lucky recipients of large numbers of Valentines cards tomorrow, although I would be happy with just the one! Thank you very much for reading our latest Newsletter.