Grumman F11F / F-11 Tiger

History of the Grumman F11F / F-11 Tiger

From pre-World War II to the modern day, the U.S. Navy has relied on aircraft designed, developed and produced by Grumman. Grumman supplied the single-seat piston-powered F4F Wildcat fighter in the early days of WWII, then added the excellent F6F Hellcat before the end of the USN stable.

The twin-engine F7F Tigercat and high-speed F8F Bearcat then followed in the postwar years, as the coming jet age gave birth to Grumman's first F9F Panther, which evolved into the equally useful F9F Cougar. It was only fitting that further development produced the F11F Tiger, which originally evolved from the Panther/Cougar series as a smaller and lighter carrier-based day fighter (of course, the Grumman fighter series reached its peak in the swing-wing era). pinnacle) Cold War, two-seat twin-engine fighter in the F-14 Tomcat).

Common to all of Grumman's offerings for delivery vehicles are folding wings, rear hooks, and reinforced landing gearand the "cat" name. The F11F Tiger began as a private Grumman venture in 1952, based on the F9F Cougar, itself a swept-wing version of the original F9F Panther fighter.

The Panther served as a ground attack fighter in the Korean War (1950-1953), thus offering a proven pedigree. The main goal was to produce the smallest possible airframe around a fairly powerful turbojet, intended to be a high-speed air combat vehicle, primarily to counter the then-emerging threat of Soviet fighter jets.

Ultimately, seven naval aircraft carriers formed seven squadrons, operating across the Atlantic and Pacific. Pilots generally liked their Tiger mounts and noticed their handling characteristics, while mechanics found the airframes relatively easy to maintain.

However, the Tiger had a short lifespan, mainly due to performance issues with its often unreliable powerplant. Additionally, their afterburner results in limited range, especially when carrier formations are expected to operate over large swaths of the open sea. The U.S. Navy's dissatisfaction with its new fighter eventually led to the cancellation of the reconnaissance model, limiting total production of the fighter type to a few hundred. Although it was introduced relatively recently in 1956, the aircraft was quickly withdrawn from front-line service as early as 1961.

By this time, the department had begun to heavily use the Vought F-8 Crusader and would eventually evaluate the excellent McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter. The F11F stayed in training for a short time before it was finally scrapped in 1969.

In 1962, all US aircraft were conventionally renamed to new names, so this meant that all early F11F aircraft were now simply "F-11s", so the original F11F-1 fighter mounts were Known as the "F-11A" as it is known.

Grumman intends to reinforce the limitations of its F11F series by developing an airframe around the General Electric J79-GE-3A turbojet as the company model G-98J. However, the U.S.

Navy has shown little interest, and only two examples of this type -- dubbed the F11F-1F "Super Tiger" -- have ever been done.

The F11F/F-11 was never exported.

Specification

Basic

Production

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Dimensions

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Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes