Road to Top Gun: Grumman F7F Tigercat

Road to Top Gun: Grumman F7F Tigercat

If you are a fan of serious scale and love seeing giant scale beauties on the flightline, then the name Dennis Crooks won’t be new to you. Dennis is a VP at Robart Manufacturing and his newest project is rapidly coming to a finish for competition at the 25th annual Top Gun Scale Invitational.

Here’s what Dennis has to say about his twin engine beauty.

Grumman F7F Tigercat

“I fully intend to have the Grumman Tigercat at Top Gun but it has not been test flown yet sooo… Anyway, it has a 120-inch wingspan and is 102-inches long.  I’m using two Robart radials (7.8ci / 128 cc) engine for power and will be running the radials on Byron fuel.  I have not weighed the model yet and I’m not ready to make a guess.

The Tigercat is built from a Bridi Tigercat kit and it has a fiberglass fuselage, a built-up wing and a balsa-sheeted foam tail.  It is finished with Pacer finishing resin and KlassKote paint.  The nose art is by Pro-Mark.

Of course, the plane has Robart electric retracts, Robart wheels and brakes and a functional Fuel tank drop. I am using a Futaba 18MZ radio.

Grumman F7F Tigercat

For a bit of history, Robart Mfg. founder Bob Walker actually started the project some 20 some years ago then it just sat here at Robart till I picked it up in 2011 and started seriously working on it again.

 

 

Updated: July 21, 2015 — 9:45 AM

12 Comments

  1. My favorite airplane of all time and with real radials on top of it , it doesn’t get better then this, good luck at Top Gun

  2. I love the Tigercat. I have had two of them, one I sold at auction when I moved back East from New Mexico the other is an ESM ARF which is electric and is a beautiful plane to fly. I wish you luck at Top Gun and I will be rooting for you.

  3. Hi Gerry,
    Great Tigercat by Dennis! Would you kindly ask him the CG position (distance from leading edge)? Has it flown? Good luck at TG.
    Thanks Mike Curmi Malta MAN subscriber

  4. That’s a real beauty. Looks sleek just sitting there. Nice job.

  5. It is a nice plane.is beautiful plane. Good luck at Top Gun

  6. My Father work at Grummman for 44 years. I wish he was still alive to see this beautiful model. He probably worked on this plane when he was a young man. Do you have an video of the plane flying?

  7. Now this is one i can’t wait to see. Love this airplane.

  8. You wont have any problem with the flight characteristics. I built the first 2 out of the molds and I still have the 3rd Tigercat with over 100 flights on it.
    Samy still has the 4th and flys it on occasion, good luck.

    David Bridi

    1. I have one of your F7F Tigercat kits and I would like to know if the plan sheets are still available. The plans that came with the kit are very faded and difficult to read. I would happily pay for a set of the plans. I’m planning to start the build in a couple of weeks as I go on Spring Break. I have the fuselage, belly pan fiberglass, nacelles and cowls and tail plane cores. I would appreciate any help you could offer. Please let me know if you can help. I have a good sized investment in these parts and I really would like to have a flying model by next summer. Email is jdevine97@comcast.net.
      Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me.

  9. We operate the real Bad Kitty. – Yours looks darn close!!

  10. Hello.

    Any update on the build?

    Greetings, Heijo.

  11. Beautiful Plane, I purchased smaller version on Ebay but no instructions or plans. Can anybody help me with information. happy to pay for copying. DCG

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