Hobby Master Archive

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series HA7202 Grumman F9F-2P Panther USN VC-61 “Eyes of the Fleet”, PP/154, “Look”, Korea LIMITED EDITION with certificate

1/48 scale pre-finished Die-cast metal with a minimum of plastic. Professionally painted. All markings pad applied for superb results. Cockpit slides open. Comes with display stand. Landing gear is fully retractable and can be displayed up or down. Wings can fold and unfold. Extremely sought after by collectors.

The F9F Panther was Grumman’s first jet fighter. The aircraft needed a more powerful engine so a Rolls Royce “Nene” was made under license in the US. Ironically the USSR was also making this engine under license for their Mig-15 that would be one of the F9F' s main Korean adversaries. There were 101 F9F-2s produced including the F9F-2P aerial reconnaissance variant. The Panther flew over 78,000 sorties in Korea and the Panther became the first carrier jet to engage a jet-powered enemy, a MIG-15 that lost the duel.

The F9F-2P aerial reconnaissance version of the Panther had the 4 x 20mm nose guns replaced with cameras leaving them defenseless. Wearing white letters PP on the tail and wings VC-61, “Eyes of the Fleet” were assigned this task during the Korean Conflict. VC-61 flew over enemy territory, took pictures and returned them to be analyzed. Armed aircraft would deploy to destroy the targets and once more VC-61 Panthers would fly over the target taking pictures so the extent of damage could be determined. VC-61 lost 4 pilots while performing their duty.

Specifications F9F-2 Panther Crew: 1 Dimensions: Length - 37 ft 5 in (11.3 m) Wingspan - 38 ft 0 in (11.6 m) Wing area - 250 ft sq (23 m sq) Height - 11 ft 4 in (3.8 m)

Weight: Empty - 9,303 lb (4,220 kg) Loaded - 14,235 lb (6,456 kg) Max takeoff - 16,450 lb (7,462 kg)

Engine: 1 X Pratt & Whitney J-42-P-6/P-8 turbojet Engine thrust - 5,950 lbf (26.5 kN) with water injection Performance: Max speed - 500 kt (575 mph, 925 km/h) Range - 1,300 mi (1,100 nm, 2,100 km) Service ceiling - 44,600 ft (13,600 m) Rate of Climb - 5,140 ft/min (26.1 m/s) Wing loading - 71 lb/ft sq (350 kg/m sq) Thrust/weight - 0.42 Armament: Guns - 4 x 20 mm (0.787 in) M2 cannon, 190 rounds/gun Hard points - 8 under wing (4/wing) to carry combinations of - 6 x 5 in (127 mm) rockets 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs F9F-2P - 20 mm nose guns replaced with cameras

THESE ARE PRE-PRODUCTION PICTURES NOT THE FINISHED MODEL