Powerplant

706 F9F-6's were produced, the majority of which were powered by the 7,250-lb thrust J48-P-8 (some later aircraft were powered by the J48-P-813, which were modified J48P-8s with titanium impeller inducers.

Armament

All Cougars were armed with four 20-mm cannon and had two wing racks for 1,000-lb bombs or, more usually, 150-US gal drop tanks. In service, a number of F9F-6s were fitted with a UHF homing antenna in a faring beneath the nose and a few had an in flight refueling probe installed in the nose.

F9F-6 from from Fighter Squadron 112 (VF-112)

Deployment history

Developed in great haste during the Korean War as a stop-gap design to provide the Navy with a fighter having performance comparable to that of the MIG-15, the Cougar was made ready for squadron assignment in a remarkably short time. Beginning in November 1952, when VF-32 became the first fleet squadron to convert to Cougars, F9F-6s and F9F-7s quickly re-equipped no fewer than twenty Navy fighter squadrons. Eight of these squadrons later converted to the more capable F9F-8, and this variant was also assigned to seven other squadrons which had not previously been flying Cougars. In addition, four Navy attack squadrons were equipped with Cougars before converting to Douglas A4D Skyhawks and three reconnaissance squadrons flew F9F-6Ps and/or F9F-8PS.

Too late to fly combat sorties in Korea, Cougars made numerous deployments to the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean during which their pleasant handling characteristics and strong airframe well suited to the rigors of carrier operations earned praise from their pilots.

By the mid-1950s, Cougars were the most numerous carrier-based fighters. However, it was already evident that these aircraft had been rendered obsolete by rapid technological development and would only have abbreviated lives as front-line aircraft. Supersonic aircraft, notably Grumman Tigers and the LTV Crusaders, were about to replace them in the fighter and reconnaissance roles and Douglas Skyhawks were destined to become the Navy's standard jet-powered light attack aircraft.

The last Cougar, a two-seat F9F-8T advanced trainer, was delivered in February 1960, and the last Cougars were finally phased out in February 1974.

Record flights

Notable were the two record US transcontinental crossings. On April 1st, 1954, flying probe-equipped F9F-6s and refueling in flight over Kansas, three VF-21 pilots made the first such flight in less than four hours, completing the 2,438 miles in 3 hr 46 minutes.

Photo Cougars

Sixty F9F-6 airframes were fitted by Grumman with a vertical and oblique camera installation in place of the cannon and were delivered as F9F-6Ps between June 1954 and March 1955.