F4F Wildcat rudder

Hi again folks,

Many thanks to all for posting those links, now have plenty of photos, just need some dimensions, which I’m sure will appear from somewhere- everything comes to those who wait!

Cheers
John

F4F Wildcat rudder

Hi again folks,

That’s certainly a lot of contacts to make a start with, many thanks and I’ll let you all know how I get on. You might also be interested to know that the FN4a turret that I’ve been working on is more or less complete now, just waiting to have the perspex moulded. The Belgian Royal Army museum have been kind enough to lend us their metal moulds, and as soon as we can pick them up, we’ll be tackling that last job asap(always leave the tricky jobs ’till
last!) If I can remember how to post jpegs I’ll let you see how we get on with that too.

Many thanks again
John

Get on to the Smithsonian library. They will have the drawings on microfilm – for the whole aircraft. The scans arent always the best quality, but much better than nothing at all!

Bruce

The museum at Pensacola is probably responsible for more Wildcat restorations than anyone else I can think of, including the one in their museum and the one at O’Hare airport in Chicago to honor Butch O’Hare.

I bet you meant ‘ones’ – I lost count of the Wildcats on show at Pensacola! turretek – feel free to PM me for a contact there, if you don’t already have one.

As mentioned, but to make it easier, the WIX ‘Long Island Aviation’ thread is a great resource. The poster, ‘ArmyJunk’ can be contacted and would, I’m sure, provide high res copies if you ask nicely.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13327

Good luck!

Have you seen these?:

http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!229723!0

http://cgi.ebay.com/Grumman-F4F-Wildcat,Original-specifications,-WW2_W0QQitemZ260315192321QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081113?IMSfp=TL081113126007r1449

I just noticed the Martlet post below this one and it mentions The Fighter Collections Wildcat was restored at Chino in 1993 before being shipped over so they might be able to help. The thread has some great pictures of Grummans.

The museum at Pensacola is probably responsible for more Wildcat restorations than anyone else I can think of, including the one in their museum and the one at O’Hare airport in Chicago to honor Butch O’Hare. I would think that they have, or have created some technical drawings of the Wildcat’s rudder. Also the USAF Museum at Dayton, Ohio would be very likely to have the blueprints you need. The USS Yorktown Museum in South Carolina has a nicely restored Wildcat F4F-3A and might be able to help. I think they have restored at least one Wildcat at Chino, California in recent years, and closer to you is the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton that has the only surviving original Martlet in their restoration hangar. There are 2 or 3 flying examples in private hands here in the states but I don’t know who the owners are at the moment, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find, the planes have been at several airshows over the last few years. Good luck.

Would it be worth contacting the U.S Navy museum at Pensacola to see if they have a spare from one of the Lake Washington aircraft?