FM Wildcat
The FM Wildcat was built by the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors to Grumman's F4F Wildcat design. An FM first flew in August 1942. Eastern was made a second production source for this aircraft to allow Grumman to concentrate on the Wildcat's successor, the F6F Hellcat. In all, Eastern delivered 5,927 FMs to the Navy, including those for use by other Allied countries. An FM was last reported in squadron in November 1945.
The FM-1, although based on the F4F-4 had a gross weight 75 pounds greater.
The FM-2 was based on a Grumman prototype designated XF4F-8. It was powered by one Wright R-1820-56 engine of 1,350 hp and had a tail fin slightly taller than the FM-1's.
One F4F-4, designated XFM-2, was converted to facilitate production engineering of the FM-2.
An FM-2 equipped for reconnaissance missions was designated FM-2P.
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