AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 38 / 106

Plate 38 of 106 · Second World War · Carrier-borne fighter

Grumman Martlet

Martlet I, painted as AL246, a Grumman G-36A built in 1940 with a Wright R-1820 Cyclone and fixed wings for the French Navy, taken over by Britain after the fall of France as a Martlet I, flown by the Fleet Air Arm mostly from Donibristle and Machrihanish in Scotland, used as an instructional airframe at Loughborough from 1944 and presented to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, where it is the only surviving Martlet I, painted as it is shown there in its original camouflage, recovered by conservators who found the factory finish under later paint on the wings and tail: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, Type A1 roundels on the fuselage, Type B above and Type A below the wings, a red, white and blue fin flash, ‘AL246’ in black on the rear fuselage, worn bare-metal wing leading edges, the plain Cyclone cowling with a carburettor scoop beneath it, and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips; the camouflage on the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane is approximated because they have only been photographed at an angle.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as AL246, a Grumman G-36A built in 1940 with a Wright R-1820 Cyclone and fixed wings for the French Navy, taken over by Britain after the fall of France as a Martlet I, flown by the Fleet Air Arm mostly from Donibristle and Machrihanish in Scotland, used as an instructional airframe at Loughborough from 1944 and presented to the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, where it is the only surviving Martlet I, painted as it is shown there in its original camouflage, recovered by conservators who found the factory finish under later paint on the wings and tail: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, Type A1 roundels on the fuselage, Type B above and Type A below the wings, a red, white and blue fin flash, ‘AL246’ in black on the rear fuselage, worn bare-metal wing leading edges, the plain Cyclone cowling with a carburettor scoop beneath it, and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips; the camouflage on the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane is approximated because they have only been photographed at an angle. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.4 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Wildcat, Hellcat, Avenger); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Martlet I modelled here.

History

The Martlet I

Grumman of Bethpage, Long Island, had supplied the US Navy with stubby biplane fighters through the 1930s. Its first monoplane fighter, the XF4F-2, flew on 2 September 1937 but lost the Navy’s 1938 competition to the Brewster Buffalo. Grumman rebuilt it with a two-stage supercharged Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp, a larger wing and a squared-off tail, and in August 1939 the Navy ordered it as the F4F-3. The fuselage was short and deep, the main wheels retracted by a hand crank into its sides, and the whole aircraft was built strongly enough to take repeated carrier landings.

France ordered 81 export G-36As, with Wright Cyclone engines and fixed wings, for its new carriers. None had been delivered when France fell in June 1940, and Britain took over the order, naming the type Martlet. The Martlet I had four .50 in machine guns, was faster than the Sea Gladiators and Fulmars it joined, and entered service with 804 Naval Air Squadron in the Orkneys that autumn. On 25 December 1940 two of the squadron’s Martlets shot down a Junkers Ju 88 over Scapa Flow, the first German aircraft destroyed by an American-built fighter in British service. In 1941 802 Squadron took its Martlets to sea on HMS Audacity, Britain’s first escort carrier, and shot down several Focke-Wulf Condors over the Gibraltar convoys before the ship was sunk in December.

The US Navy named the type Wildcat in 1941. With folding wings and six guns, the F4F-4 carried the Navy and Marine Corps through Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal, holding its own against the faster and more agile Zero through tougher construction and team tactics. General Motors’ Eastern Aircraft Division took over production as the FM-1 and the lighter FM-2, which flew from escort carriers until the end of the war. In all nearly 7,900 were built, about 1,100 of them going to the Fleet Air Arm, which adopted the name Wildcat in 1944.

This airframe

Martlet I AL246

AL246The airframe modelled

AL246 was one of the G-36As built for the French Navy in 1940 and taken over by Britain after the fall of France. As a Martlet I it spent most of its service in Scotland, at Donibristle and Machrihanish, defending naval bases and training pilots, and from 1944 it was an instructional airframe at Loughborough. It went to Yeovilton in the late 1950s and was presented to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in the early 1960s. It is the only Martlet I left. When the museum’s conservators removed its later paint layer by layer, they found the original Grumman factory finish surviving on the wings, tailplane and rudder. The fuselage had been stripped before it reached the museum, so its camouflage was mapped from traces left at panel joints and rivets and repainted to match. The model shows it as displayed: Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky, Type A1 roundels on the fuselage, Type B above and Type A below the wings, a red, white and blue fin flash, “AL246” in black on the rear fuselage, worn bare-metal wing leading edges, the plain Cyclone cowling and a black three-blade propeller with yellow tips. The camouflage on the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane is approximated, because it has only been photographed at an angle.

See it at Fleet Air Arm Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Martlet I in 3 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 106 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.