since,to my knowledge the corsair and hellcat never actually fought an fw-190, i find it odd they would test these aircraft together. i would love to see a comparison against a mustang,p-47 or spitfire, which would seem more relevant.

These tests were don eby the US Navy because they were looking to see what sort of replacement was needed for the F6F and the F4-U. At the time the F8 was starting limited production and the Navy knew it's budgets were going to vanish soon. So they had to see if the Corsair and Hellcat would be able to do the job or if they needed replacing. There was thought Given to building a Carrier version of the Mustang, but the testing showed it was no improvement over the F4-U by the time the extra weight needed for carrier ops was added. The Navy decided to keep the F4-U and spend it's money on jets and submarines. Remember this was less then a decade afterthe first nuclear pile went online and sticking one in a Sub was a very daring idea. Expensive too.

A previous poster questioned the wisdom of comparing the FW-190 (an A-5 apparently) with the F6F or F4U, since they didn't think any such combats occured. The Royal Navy operated both F6F and F4U aircraft, I'd be surprised if *no*  RN Hellcat or Corsair / FW-190 combats took place. At least some RN F6Fs carried invasion stripes, so they were operating in the right place and the right time to encounter FW 190s.

I can't name an instance when a US Navy fighter, of US manufacture, encountered FW 190s, Me 109s or any other German fighters. But whereas the U. S. Army made absolutely sure that there were NO, repeat, NO, U. S. Marine ground forces serving in the ETO, I don't recall that U.S. Navy fighters were as absolutely excluded. Plenty of U. S. Navy fighters operated in the various Atlantic and Mediteranian Fleets. The USS Ranger certainly spent the entire war East of the Panama Canal.

Bill Abbott IV