Ginter Books

Naval Fighters #80: Grumman F8F Bearcat

by Corwin "Corky" Meyer and Steve Ginter

Reviewed By Benjamin Guenther, IPMS #20101

MSRP: $39.95 ISBN: 0-942612-80-9 Soft Cover 8.5" x11", 216 pages Published date: 2008 Review copy courtesy of Ginter Books Website: www.ginterbooks.com This book is another in the Naval Fighters series that caters to aviation enthusiasts and modelers. The soft cover book is 216 pages that are just jam packed with black & white photos and drawings. Typical of Ginter books not a page is wasted, the front and rear covers have color photographs while the cover’s inside pages contain text and photos. The introduction mentions that this book only covers U.S. users, that no foreign users or civilian race planes are covered, other than that everything else is covered. The first 18 pages tell the history of the Bearcat and the flight-testing. The co-author Corky Meyer was a Grumman test pilot that flew many of the Bearcats test flights, his recounting of the spin tests, high-speed dive tests and wing tip tests are a highlight and make for entertaining reading. The next ten pages reviews the Bearcat production history and I never knew so many variants existed; a drone version (F8F-1D), night fighter version (F8F-2N), a photo recce version (F8F-2P) and more. The next 43 pages will get the modeler excited with page after page of photos and drawings of internal and external Bearcat details. You are treated to several pages of drawings: 3 view drawings, 2 cutaway drawings, F8F station diagram, and access panel locations. The bulk of the book (143 pages) is with Military usage and covers all Naval Fighter Squadrons, NACA use, Marine use, Naval Reserve use and the Blue Angles. The last few pages gives a quick overview of Bearcat models that have been produced from 1/200 scale to 1/32 scale. If you admire Grumman aircraft or intend to build a Bearcat model this book will be a great assist to you. I highly recommend it, now if we can only get Steve Ginter to come out with a follow up volume on Bearcat foreign and civilian users the story would be complete. My thanks to Ginter Books for a chance to review this book.