Hellcat 566 anyone?

[Pat Johnston]

As long as I have the Profile Hellcat 566 designed, I wonder if anyone would like a LA46 sized Hellcat with a full body?  That could be a rather cute departure and as a bonus a good possibility for those wanting to do and electric setup and not have to shoehorn parts into tight spaces.  Of course, the Hellcat would have plenty of room.  I may just start one here right now.  What do you think?
Pat Johnston
Never Bored Design Studio
Skunk Works

[Rick Henry]

Pat, Count me in.

Rick Henry

[larry richards]

I would love to have a full bodied F6F!  Especially for a 46 size engine. Please count me in if you make up the kit, or the plans.   Larry  

[Darkstar1]

Hey Pat
While you're at it could do some thing with the Brodak Bearcat fuse to modify it for electric also. If U need any input
I'm always here.
Thanks.

[Wynn Robins]

heck yeah!!!!  more full fuse warbirds would be awesome (as you know I am after one in particular)

[wwwarbird]

 If you ask me we, can't ever have enough full-fuse Warbirds. Like most, I do wish I had a lot more building time however.

 If you do it Pat you've gotta incorporate the diehedral bend in the wing though, otherwise it's just another wing carrying aroung a Hellcat fuse.

[Pat Johnston]

Wayne,
The wing does have a little dihedral, but not the dihedral breaks outside the landing gear bays.  That becomes rather messy when it comes to doing stunt flaps.  I agree a straight wing would look funny like people who design Mustangs with straight, mid wings.  Those look kind of like abortions.  Wow!  That wasn't too kind, but what the heck.
Looks like there a lot of appeal.  Design started...
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

[Jerry Leuty]

  I am always interested in .40 to .46 size warbirds. Especially the full bodied models. Are you planning on doing full kits, short kits, or just blue prints? I have a couple of extra .46s and one of these Hell Cats would be fun.

[Bootlegger]

  Pat got the N plans, thanks a lot, now got pitchers of the 566??  Thanks, Gil

[Pat Johnston]

Gil,
The plans are in progress.  I'll post them ASAP.  The plan is to offer ribs, formers, possibly fuselage sides and doublers.  Could even do tail surfaces for a semi-short kit (or is that a long short kit???).  Whatever.  I'll keep all posted on this one.  The Hellcat is likely one of the more unusual subjects for the US fighter which had the highest kill ratio of all.  19 kills to one loss on the average.  Arguably the best fighter of the war.  Tough as nails.  Might consider the Corsair and P-47 in that clan.  Odd... something about the R2800 radial engine there...
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

[wwwarbird]

Wayne,
The wing does have a little dihedral, but not the dihedral breaks outside the landing gear bays.  That becomes rather messy when it comes to doing stunt flaps.  I agree a straight wing would look funny like people who design Mustangs with straight, mid wings.  Those look kind of like abortions.  Wow!  That wasn't too kind, but what the heck.
Looks like there a lot of appeal.  Design started...
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

 I hear ya Pat, but how about this for an idea? As a build option on the Hellcat, offer a wing version without flaps and with the proper dihedral detail?

 Another thing on Warbird designs that should be incorporated is tapering the airfoil thicknesses down toward the tips as well. With that comment I mean all of them in general, I'm not intending to pick on your designs Pat. I know that by not doing that the general idea is to acheive better stunt qualities, but I'd wager that most building these designs probably aren't choosing them for their next "World Beater" contest machine anyway. Even though they are semi-scale, they just never look quite right with big thick wingtips. Having the taper in the wing just naturally makes them present much more scale like, and with a good airfoil they can still perform very well.
 If one really wants to get nit-picky and would be concerned about losing flight performance because of that thickness taper, just add a slight bit more chord to the entire length of the wing to gain a little more wing area and get it back.

 Just my opinion.

[Pat Johnston]

WW,
Odd that you should mention thinning the tips.  I have been doing that more and more lately.  The first working model of this was my Mako Jet which had the wing taper from 18% at the root to 16% at the tip.  The result was a root thickness of 2.15" and a tip thickness of 1.32".  Of course, with the Shark 35/45 style tips they are very thin looking since they are far from a simple 1" block tip.  This shamelessly borrows from the philosophy of Bob Hunt that thinner tips have an advantage in windy, turbulent conditions.  This is because the lower drag doesn't push one tip more than the other when that occasion happens in the turbulence.  It is hard to tell, but the Mako Jet flies wonderfully well.  The performance does not seem to lack with the thinner tips.
WW, I will offer the more realistic non-flapped wing.  Good plan, plus the Corsair does not suffer from not having flaps, so the ground is broken there.
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

[wwwarbird]

 There you go Pat.

[Pat Johnston]

After a bit of furious ACAD work the full bodied Hellcat is done.  As depicted this is the F6F-3 version.  The -3 version has the little side windows behind the canopy, where they were deleted on the -6 version.  The full bodied design turned out pretty scale-like with the fuselage being about 10% longer ("X" direction) than the overall height ("Y" direction).  Not all that bad.  It will be a real cutie.  Lots of chubiness there to love.  The wing position allows for only a minimal amount of dihedral demanded, about 3/8" at the centerline of the tip.  The Hellcat was a large enough plane where the scale length of landing gear gives a relatively low ground hugging appearance for a scalish looking fighter plane.  Remember, the Hellcat was 343 square feet of wing area where Mustangs, Bearcats, Spitfires, P-40's, Zeros, etc were mostly all in the 230 squre feet range.  I called out for 2 3/4" wheels which are close to just the right size and make for a good grass plane if used that way.
PDF files attached for all to gander.
Pat Johnston
Fighter Design Studio
Skunk Works

[Rick Henry]

Pat, I really want that plane.  How do I get a kit or short kit?

Rick

[Pat Johnston]

Gotchya, Ty.  I think you have the 700 inch version.  This one is 566 for a 40/46.  Should be popular and a lot of fun.
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

[wwwarbird]

 The Hellcat looks excellent Pat. What is the wingspan?

[Rick Henry]

Thanks for all your work Pat.  Just wish I could build them all.

Rick