Grumman F3F – The Bi-Plane Superstar

A lot of World of Warplanes players play the game with just one thought in mind: grinding their way to the top as quickly as possible. Since reaching Tier III doesn’t take long, most players don’t spend a lot of time with the early bi-planes of the first two tiers. Consequently, early models are quickly left behind for the appeal of faster mono-planes or even speedier jet-engine aircraft.

While this desire for perpetually stronger and faster aircraft is understandable, players who skip over the Grumman F3F by dismissing it as ‘just another bi-plane’ would be overlooking a gem of an aircraft! This unusual-looking plane has excellent flight characteristics which, when paired with the skills of a capable pilot, can lead you to outstanding results that will reignite your appreciation for lower tier battles.

Get to know the F3F inside-out in our gameplay analysis or learn about its background by skipping directly to the history part at the end of the article. Buckle up everyone! Here comes the Grumman F3F!

The F3F in the Game

Technological Progression

The F3F awaits pilots on Tier III of the American branch of carrier-based fighters or, as they’re now simply called, fighters. If you play diligently and concentrate on just the one side of the tech tree, you should be able to unlock the plane in just four to five successful battles. The F3F will cost you 1,695 XP and a very affordable 33,000 credits, making it easy to reach even for less-experienced players.

Profile and Tactics

Let’s kick off the review by stating one thing loud and clear - the F3F is undoubtedly the best bi-plane in the game. In fact, it is so manoeuvrable, sturdy and precise that despite being the last bi-plane on Tier III, it has the qualities to not only match but even overpower its two-winged competitors from the same tier. Fighters, Heavy Fighters, Attack Aircraft – it doesn’t matter. If played right, the F3F can take on all of them and come out victorious even when outnumbered.

How is this possible you think? First and foremost it is thanks to its outstanding manoeuvrability. Standing at a proud 423 units on the stock configuration alone, the F3F has the second-best agility of its tier – only outmatched by the slightly more agile I-16 (e.). When equipped with the right modules, you can boost its manoeuvrability even further, which will truly make it out-perform other fighters of its level and even higher tiers. Although it suffers from the usual bi-plane limitations like the absence of flaps, low airspeed and a low optimal altitude, it manages to overcome these drawbacks formidably by offering excellent in-flight performance. Extremely agile, the F3F preserves supreme handling and precision, making navigating it through the sky a pure delight.

Although statistically its weapons are towards the lower end of the spectrum, you won’t find the F3F lacking in firepower. The double 7.62 or 12.7mm guns are both highly accurate (even at longer distances) and have great damage-dealing potential. Best of all, combined with the F3F’s manoeuvrability, you’ll be able to twist and turn in the sky at will and keep your foes in the crosshair longer than with other aircraft. If you do run out of airspace to finish off a target in a single effective flyby, then you can always turn around. A crazy 8.3 second average turn-time makes it possible for you to turn so quickly that you can adjust your angle and try again.

This agility also comes in handy on defence. With the F3F it’s much easier to survive on your own against multiple attackers than it is with most other planes in the game. Thanks to its outstanding turning capabilities, you can just keep spinning your way out of hairy situations and circumvent an enemy’s attack by under-cutting their offensive trajectory before they can aim at you.  Using this technique, you can keep evading the danger effectively until help arrives and even start chipping away at your opponent’s Hit Points as you pass by on your turns.

Speaking of Hit Points, you’ll also be glad to hear that the iconic frame of the F3F gives it above-average durability of up to 115 Hit Points. However, it must also be noted that the same frame reduces the plane’s velocity – especially when diving.  Although your 950 horse power engine is strong enough to allow for reasonably fast climbs, it cannot completely undo the limitations that come with the bi-plane form of your aircraft.  You should adjust your strategy accordingly, by never boosting higher than the peak of your optimal altitude of 1,150 metres at the beginning of the battle. That way, instead of watching your prey get away while you try to accelerate downwards, you’ll be close enough to strike whatever you set your sights on.

All in all the F3F is great both on offence and defence. While it can dish out damage with the best of them, it can also evade seemingly hopeless situations with its unmatched manoeuvrability. With a plane like this you won’t always be the first to arrive on the scene of the battle, but it’s very likely that you’ll be the last to leave it.

Upgrades

The Grumman F3F has good upgrade options for a fighter, with meaningful choices for key modules. In addition to two extra engine versions, you can improve its airframe and guns, or even decide to strap on some bombs. Find out what configuration works best in our detailed look at the upgrades below.

Airframe

The upgraded F3F frame is basically a no-brainer. Not only does it give you an additional 10 Hit Points but it improves your below-average diving speed by 20 km/h as well. As if that weren’t enough, it also increases your plane’s manoeuvrability, reducing its already outstanding turn-time by an additional 0.2 seconds. At 790 XP and a purchase price of 10,500 credits, this is the best investment you can make to boost your F3F’s performance.

Engine

The R-1535-72 stock engine is obviously not in the same class as a German Daimler-Benz model, but it still gives you sufficient performance to see you successfully through your battles. With its 10-second boost you can easily gain up to 500 metres of altitude before beginning to stall. In the interests of saving your precious credits, we suggest upgrading directly to the Tier IV R-1820-22 model, which will improve most of your speed statistics in a more meaningful fashion. If you upgrade to the better airframe beforehand, it will compensate fully for the minimal loss of 0.2 seconds turn-time that comes along with the heavier engine. Your plane still won’t set any speed records (425 km/h at its optimal altitude is the maximum that you can hope for) but at least you will have saved 7,270 credits that you can then put towards unlocking other items.

Don’t rely too much on the assistance of your boost throughout the game. Once you have made your initial ascent to attack altitude, you will probably have already used it all up. The boost takes a significant amount of time to cool back down, which means that you won’t have it at your disposal for much of the battle. On the flipside, you also won’t need it very much. Accept that your plane will be a little slower than the others and enjoy instead its great dogfighting abilities in close-quarters –you won’t need the boost then anyway.

Weapons

In terms of guns you only have one additional option available on the F3F. However, this upgrade is a ‘must’ that cannot be passed over. Since your plane starts out with only an under-strength Tier I gun, spending the 850 XP and 17,600 credits to switch from the initial 7.62 mm guns to the stronger 12.7 mm M2 (s) cannons is almost mandatory. You won’t lose much in either manoeuvrability or rate of climb, and you will gain a valuable 20 points in firepower that will make your life in the game much easier. There will still be other Tier III fighters such as the German Ar 80 that will carry significantly more firepower than you but your guns will be more precise – even at the maximum firing distance of 750 metres.

With a damage output of 65 points per hit, you’ll be able to take out most of your enemies with just one good salvo. Heavy Fighters and Attack Aircraft may require a little more patience (or firing at a shorter range) but should succumb to prolonged fire nonetheless. The 12.7mm M2 guns can fire for up to 10 seconds before they begin to choke, which should be enough to bring almost any other plane down to 20% Hit Points. To finish the job, just barrel roll around your opponent at a wider angle to keep enough separation between you, take a couple of seconds to cool down, then blast your target into oblivion.

If you want to change your playing style a little bit, then you can also opt to strap on two 100 pound bombs to your wings. Although you’ll lose another 26 km/h in speed (which is considerable given how slow your plane is in the first place), your manoeuvrability won’t suffer too much. Even if your average turn-time drops another 0.4 seconds, it will still be better than any other plane in the battle.

However, given that your plane excels in close dogfights, we cannot recommend anybody concentrating too much on ground targets when flying the F3F. Should you choose to take the bombs anyway (maybe to add some additional points by taking out targets on your way to battle), then you should focus on AA guns instead of larger ground targets. Each of your bombs dishes out 1,200 damage in a 70 unit radius. This will be enough for one AA gun per bomb but won’t do the trick for other stronger buildings or headquarters that you may encounter. You should leave those to your team mates in their Heavy Fighters and Attack Aircraft who have a heavier payload.

Equipment and Consumables

The F3F doesn’t feature a lot of variety in the equipment department. All you can add to your plane is the Improved Optical Sight and some Reinforced Covering I. Both items make sense, but aren’t really mandatory. If you find that you already perform fine without any of these, then save the combined 75,000 credits for a rainy day. However, if you feel like you want to get that extra punch to increase your (already great) accuracy or (already great) durability further, then you can make the investment.

As far as consumables are concerned, the only thing that’s really interesting for the F3F is the 120-octane Gasoline. The 10% added to your full engine power will come in handy if you want to extend your climbs or soar into the skies with a little more ‘pep in your step’. All the other items, such as the various fire extinguishers and healing aids, will usually go unused during your flights with the F3F. Your plane is very manoeuvrable and, once you know how to handle it, you should be able to dodge most incoming fire and avoid any serious damage. In the rare cases when you do catch bullets, your sturdy bi-plane frame should prove its worth by keeping both engine and pilot safe from harm. As long as you don’t overdo it, you shouldn’t need any of these goodies.

History

The Grumman F3F, nicknamed ‘The Flying Barrel’, was America’s last biplane fighter, but was only in use for a few years between 1935 and 1941. They were withdrawn from service before they could serve in World War II.  Only 164 F3Fs were ever built and they never saw combat, much to the relief of all. With restricted visibility, weak guns and poor quality gun platforms, the F3F was never going to be a great fighter plane. In addition, the hand-cranked landing gear, shape of the fuselage and the bi-wing arrangement were already outdated before the plane left the factory.  However, it did achieve some popularity amongst its pilots, who would paint their planes with vividly colourful designs of red, yellow and blue – each one was different.

The plane was an attempt by Grumman to improve the F2F to military standards. There were three known versions – the F3F-1, F3F-2 and F3F-3.

The design process for the F3F-1 was plagued with problems. Most seriously, during one of the early test flights, the plane’s structure simply collapsed under the forces of a nosedive and a test pilot was killed. A subsequent prototype was built with a strengthened frame, but this one fared little better and suffered a similar crash (although this time the pilot was able to bail out safely). Eventually the plane went into production and 54 were built.

By 1936, the combination of a looming war for the US in war with delays in the production readiness of the next-generation monoplanes, such as the F4F, meant that the US Navy ended up putting an order in for a few more bi-planes to tide them over. This was the F3F-2, and 81 were ordered. Improvements were made to the design to increase the speed, climb rate and maximum altitude.

The final version was the F3F-3, which came about due to continuing delays with the F4F. This version combined some of the new features of the F4F, including a smaller propeller and an improved cockpit canopy. Only 27 planes were ordered. By 1941, no F3F planes remained in military service. However, they did continue to be used for transport and training until 1943.

One plane survived the end of the war and lasted until the 1970s when it caught fire at an air show. Since then, three F3F planes have been reconstructed from the parts of wrecked aircraft. These can all be seen in action at air shows in America.

Enjoy playing with the F3F, Pilots!