Folding Wing Question

[224 Peter]

I'm building the big Hellcat...it really is BIG. 

The kit is progressing well, I'm at the point of building the wings.  My plan is to have the guns and ammunition panel open on one wing: I assume this would only happen with the wing down in the flying position. 

 

QUESTION: Was the Hellcat able to have one wing folded, the other extended, or did they fold/unfold together? 

 

I have found lots of photos of folded wings and unfolded wings, but so far not one with one folded and one unfolded. 

Can anyone help with an answer? 

[Dave Fleming]

They are manual, so it is possible - first few mins

 

 

[Graham Boak]

Balance might be bit precarious, especially with armourers scrambling on top of the wing.

[Work In Progress]

You would not see a Hellcat with one wing folded and the other wing's panels opened up in real life, but if you want to do for creative license, presumably on the grounds of display square footage, no-one will stop you.

[224 Peter]

Thanks, especially to Dave, for the film. 

Artistic licence...we all do it, and it will save space. But I think, in this case, I'll stick with the real world and wings down. 

 

Just about finished the main structure of the wing internals, all I need to do now is to position the guns and ammunition boxes. 

Progress is being reported here....

 

[FG2Si]

Another option is to have the wings folded and the gun bays open. There's a thread on either LSP or LSM where there's a couple pics of armourers reloading a Hellcat with the wings folded. 

 

Carl

[224 Peter]

12 hours ago, FG2Si said:

Another option is to have the wings folded and the gun bays open. There's a thread on either LSP or LSM where there's a couple pics of armourers reloading a Hellcat with the wings folded. 

 

Carl

Carl, 

Interesting! I'd assumed that this wasn't possible. I shouldn't assume anything! 

 

[Tailspin Turtle]

7 hours ago, 224 Peter said:

Carl, 

Interesting! I'd assumed that this wasn't possible. I shouldn't assume anything! 

 

Space was at a premium aboard a carrier. The wings were folded during the taxi forward after the landing. The airplanes parked forward were then pulled into a pack aft to allow for takeoffs. Unfolding the wings at any point between landing and takeoff would have been a significant nuisance. So the ammo bays were designed to be loaded with the wings folded.

[wschurr]

I’m wrapping up the Airfix kit myself and in digging through tons of pics I found one with wings folded and gun access panels open. I also found one with one wing folded and the other extended. I ended up doing both wings extended but the right gun bays are open as is the engine cowlings on the right. I couldn't stand to cover all that detail! This thing really looks good but I had a considerable amount of binding assemblies, for example the cockpit assembly binding when joining the fuselage halves. Same with the wing to fuselage mating and engine cowlings fitting over the exhaust system and intake ducts. My best advice to anyone considering building this kit is to make sure everything lines up and is correctly seated before the glue sets. There’s definitely a lot of model in that big box!

.

[pat d]

I have only seen one photo of an F6F with one wing spread and one folded. This -5 is supposed to be on the U.S.S. Independence, from a photo in the National Archives. Note the catapult bridal is hooked up.

 

[Work In Progress]

The bridle being hooked up suggests a staged publicity shot of some kind, rather than actual operations