The backgrounder on the F4F Wildcat that we reprinted from the Olympic Flight Museum's lovely website, as an adjunct to the weekend's awful crash, contained some near-misses, according to Rich Dann, who works on the Space Station for a day job, but researches and writes warbird history for love.

He wrote us, This statement is partially true:

"The US Navy's first F4F-3 flew on August 20, 1940. 95 were ordered with the R-1830-90, single-stage supercharged engine with deliveries occurring in 1941. The name "Wildcat" was introduced in service on October 1, 1941. Based on combat experience of the British export Martlet, the XF4F-4 was introduced with a six-gun armament, folding wings, self-sealing tanks, and armor. Delivery of the F4F-4 began in November 1941."

Lt Dann notes, The aircraft with the R-1830-90 were referred to as F4F-3As. These had a single-stage supercharger and performance suffered at altitude. Greek aircraft were F4F-3As (Martlet Mk III). Standard F4Fs had a R-1830-76 or -86 engine.

We called the museum, to make sure we were headed down the right road. The Museum's Deputy Director, Derrick Baena, said his information showed the first production models carried the 1830-86; the later models had a -90.

Rich continued, You should definitely change this as well:

"Serving initially aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Saratoga (CV-3), the Wildcats fought the significant early battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, and operations at Guadalcanal. The Wildcats held the operational center of actions throughout the Pacific until the
American industrial arm introduced more advanced aircraft in 1943. The Wildcats also saw action with the US Navy in the Mediterranean region in late 1942."

USS Hornet CV-12 was an Essex class carrier and played no part in early war operations. You should change it to CV-8 (shown), which was the original Hornet. Should add USS Lexington CV-2, USS Yorktown CV-5 Atlantic operations with Wildcats included Operation Torch and support for Malta resupply efforts...Carriers here were USS Ranger CV-4 and USS Wasp CV-7.

[Mr. Baena acknowledged the faux pas on the reference to 'CV-12' -- it's being fixed.]

Nobody's perfect... Rich noted, "Several escort carriers used at Torch as well, can't remember their names."

[Thanks to our sharp-eyed reader, and to the wonderful folks at the Olympic Flight Museum. Now everybody's better off! --ed.]

FMI: http://olympicflightmuseum.com/