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A Bear of a Tattoo: Grumman F8F Bearcat Tattoo

Posted on May 16, 2009

This weekend I was supposed to be in Chino, CA for the annual Planes of Fame Air Museum Airshow - one of the most well-known warbird airshows in the world. One of the highlights of the airshow this year is the assembly of no less than five Grumman F8F Bearcats in one place… and three would fly in an aerobatic formation act… perhaps the first time since the U.S. Navy Blue Angels stopped using the type in 1949. Alas, I wasn’t able to go because of a tight budget, but instead I’d like to present this tattoo of a Bearcat just to mark the event.

The Grumman F8F Bearcat was to be the last piston-engine fighter built by the Grumman Aircraft Company of Bethpage, NY. The aircraft was conceived as an interceptor — a light, small, and maneuverable aircraft built behind the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine, producing over 2,000 hp. Though designed and flown late in World War II, the Bearcat only reached operational status after WWII ended. It saw service alongside early fighters and the final variant of the Vought F4U-5NL Corsair, another piston fighter.

After U.S. service, the Bearcat was used by the French Air Force in the First Indochina War and was also used by the Royal Thai Air Force. This weekend at the airshow in Chino, a Bearcat painted in Royal Thai Air Force colors will make it’s first public appearance.

The since being disposed from armed forces inventories, the Bearcat has been known in civil use as a formidable competitor in the sport of Unlimited Air Racing. A stock F8F flown by Mira Slovak won the first Reno Air Races in 1964. For several decades, the highly modified “Rare Bear” F8F owned by Lyle Shelton (now owned by Rod Lewis) has dominated the Reno Air Races on-and-off again.

This colorful tattoo featuring the Bearcat was created by artist Mo Malone tattooing at Iron Age Studio in St. Louis, MO.

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