Editing Grumman F8F Bearcat (section)

===Production===
The Navy placed a production contract for 2,023 aircraft based on the second prototype on 6 October 1944. On 5 February 1945, they awarded another contract for 1,876 slightly modified aircraft from [[General Motors]]' [[Eastern Aircraft Division]], given the designation F3M-1. These differed primarily in having the R-2800-34W engine and a small increase in fuel capacity.

Deliveries from Grumman began on 21 May 1945. The end of the war led to the Grumman order being reduced to 770 examples, with the GM contract being cancelled outright. An additional order was placed for 126 F8F-1Bs replacing the .50 cal machine guns with the 20&nbsp;mm M2 cannon, the US version of the widely used [[Hispano-Suiza HS.404]]. Fifteen of these were later modified as F8F-1N night fighters with an APS-19 radar mounted under the starboard wing.

An unmodified production F8F-1 set a 1946 time-to-climb record (after a run of {{convert|115|ft|abbr=on|disp=sqbr}}) of {{convert|10000|ft|0}} in 94 seconds ({{convert|6383|ft/min|m/s|abbr=on|disp=sqbr}}). The Bearcat held this record for 10 years until it was broken by a jet fighter (which still could not match the Bearcat's short takeoff distance).

In 1948, Grumman introduced a number of improvements to produce the F8F-2. Among the changes were a modified cowling design, taller vertical fin, and the slightly more powerful R-2800-30W engine producing {{convert|2,240|hp|abbr=on}}. In total, 293 F8F-2s were produced, along with 12 F8F-2N night fighters and 60 F8F-2P reconnaissance versions. Production ended in 1949, and the first units began to convert off the type that year. The last Bearcats were withdrawn in 1952.