Commander James H. Flatley had a distinguished naval career, finally attaining the rank of Vice Admiral in the U.S. Navy. In WWII, he was an ace in the Pacific theater, participating in the Battle of the Coral Sea and later becoming Commander Air Group Five (CAG-5) aboard the USS Yorktown (CV-10). It was at this time, beginning in August 1943, that he helped introduce the Grumman F6F Hellcat into combat with VF-5. The Hellcat and F4U Corsair were to become the primary U.S. Navy carrier fighters in the second half of WWII. The rugged Hellcat achieved an astonishing kill-to-loss ratio of 19:1, the highest of any American fighter of WWII!
Dragon Warbirds has introduced its own F6F Hellcat, and there would be no more appropriate guise than that of the aircraft belonging to CAG-5. The 1/72 scale model is actually an F6F-3 variant that took part in the Marcus Island raid on August 31 1943. Marcus Island was on Tokyo's "doorstep", 993 miles southeast of the capital. This "White 00" replica can be displayed in flying or landing mode, plus it possesses subtle detail such as that found in the completely detailed cockpit. The interesting tri-tone paint scheme was applied over the previous NS blue-gray/NS light gray camouflage, helping to merge the plane with sea and sky. The markings accurately depict Commander Flatley's fighter as it appeared at the time of the daring Marcus Island raid.