Canadian Car & Foundry Tiger F Mk VIWhen in 1944 the Royal Canadian Navy was looking
for a heavy long range fighter aircraft their eye fell on the Grumman
F7F Tigercat. Although the US Navy was not very enthusiastic about the
Canadians saw a big potential for the Grumman design. In October 1944 negotiations started with the
Grumman Company about buying 240 Tigercats. Grumman however was already
overloaded with work and could not produce the aircraft for Canada.
Also there was a problem with obtaining the proper engines for the
Canadian aircraft.
When this became clear the Canadian Navy
approached the Canadian Car & Foundry Company for a possible license
production of the Tigercat. This company was happy to oblige but this
still left the problem of the engines. Canadian Car & Foundry Company
proposed to re-design the Canadian produced aircraft to take the Rolls
Royce Merlin which was also license produced in Canada. And so the Canadian Car & Foundry Tiger was born.
The first Merlin powered aircraft took to the sky in January 1945 and
an initial production batch of 120 Tigers F Mk I was delivered from
April 1945 onwards. Just like with the US Navy the type proved
difficult to handle from aircraft carriers of the day and was mainly
used from land based airfields.
The end of the war saw a large cutback in orders
for new aircraft but in total 486 Tigers were produced in different
versions. The last production version was the F Mk-VI of which 96 were
delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy.
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Last updated: 01/07/2017