[ARC5] FM-2 Radios

[Robert Eleazer]

A friend of mine owned an Eastern Aircraft FM-2 Wildcat for a while just after WWII.  The FM-2 was the last version built by a division of GM, and had the original R-1830 two stage supercharged engine replaced by a single stage supercharged R-1820, which gave better performance at low altitude but less at high altitude.

My friend said that his Wildcat was equipped with a radio that required you to swap out coils to change frequencies.  Of course, it was very likely his airplane was used for training in the U.S. rather than combat.  And we know that the RU/GF continued to be used for training aircraft in the U.S. after being replaced by later equipment in combat.

As for the difficulty with changing coils, that must have been a real pain.  But on the other hand, all versions of the Wildcat had landing gear that had to be cranked up by hand via a bicycle chain arrangement and the earliest versions also required the use of a manually pumped fuel transfer system in order for drop tanks to be used.  It appears that you could not fly a Wildcat unless you could rub your head and pat your stomach at the same time and had very strong wrists!

Wayne
WB5WSV