The F8F was designed to replace the F6F Hellcat.
Too late to see combat in WWII, the Bearcat was never used in combat
by the U.S. The F8F-2 was built in 1948. It was more powerful and
an improvement over F8F-1. Of the 305 F8F-2s built, 12 were night
fighter variants and 30 were photo-recon aircraft.