Today, fighter jets are equipped with incredibly sophisticated weapons. With a combination of missiles, bombs, and other hardware, they have two capabilities that are vital for any offensive aircraft: to strike from potentially great distances, and to be able to engage targets other than fellow airborne ones. The likes of the Royal Air Force’s upcoming Tempest fighter are going to be reliant on such qualities.
The propeller-driven fighters of the World War II era, however, didn’t generally allow for such applications. They were of the more traditional dogfighting variety, as befitted the weapons technology of the time. The Tigercat, then, had quite a close-range arsenal: A total of eight machine guns were equipped on it, and it also had a very limited capacity for explosive ordnance (typically a pair of bombs).
By the standards of its day, the Tigercat was a very capable aircraft, and a new step forward for Grumman’s enduring family of cat-based fighters. Some of its true potential, however, will remain theoretical, because it would ultimately go on to see little use in combat.
