I have literally been TRAWLING the net for info on the Hellcat, in an attempt to add more detail. Whatever I can get, I'll take...
I'm not putting the plan down in any way, I'm just really, REALLY obssessive about such details O0
The list so far...
In the first photo, you can see that there are rails on the front similar to that of the ELCO PT boats, but extend out sideways of the 'cabin'. There is a porthole on each side of the 'cabin'. There is some kind of blob on the port side front of the 'cabin', in front of the porthole that appears to be unrecognisable. The back of the 'cabin' does curve as per the plan, but is flat at the back (I won't bother changing this...). The third picture is an in service hellcat, and clearly has a cannon, possibly double barrelled on the bow. The second picture is a drawing of a typical radar mast, which I thought the Hellcat may have, however there are three b:~{*^%($ in the way in the first photo, and no mast at all in the service mod. I managed to find photo 4 which changed all this, it does have the typical mast, so I'll be updating the mast soon. The bow rails appear to go out from next to the 'cabin', slightly inwards, then to a couple of posts and down at 45ºto the deck. There is an arial emerging from between the gun turrets. The modified boat niether had a mast nor the metal cage around the turrets. There is an overhang right the way round the top deck over the side of the boat. There are no deck cleats. There is a semi-circular arc in front of the foremost torpedos. In the first photo there are three bars running vetically under the warhead of the rear torpedo, I have no idea what they are and they aren't in any of the other photo's. Finally, I'm not sure about those torpedos, they look fatter in the pictures.
So concludes our obssessive, compulsive tour of The Details Of The Higgings PT-564 Hellcat
Data of PT564, The Hellcat
* Experimental class Motor Torpedo Boat:
* Displacement: 40 tons
* Length: 70'
* Beam: 20'
* Draft: 4'6"
* Speed: 46 knots
* Armament: 2-4 21" or 4 18" torpedo tubes
* Complement: 10-11
* 3 Packard (W-8) gasoline engines
* Built at Higgins, New Orleans, and commissioned 2 September 1943
The Hellcat was one of a kind, only one ever entered service.
The "Hellcat" In 1943, Higgins Industries decided to attempt to save weight and increase the speed of the boats. This was achieved on a smaller hull (70 feet) that had less mass in the area of the upperworks. That meant more speed for the boat. The Hellcat was faster than the production based PT boats of the time.
The boat was armed with two twin .50 caliber machine guns in turrets, a 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun on a tripod mount and four lightweight Mark XIII torpedoes, mounted in lightweight side-launching roll-off racks. Tests were also performed with mounting two sets of twin .50 caliber machine guns side-by-side on the foredeck and firing them remotely from the cockpit.
It was found that the Hellcat was too small to carry the extra added guns carried by the boats in action at that point of the war to the later stages of the war and the design was not put into production.
If anyone else has any other photos or info on the details of the hellcat, they shall be very gratefully recieved
Andrewh, you can see the splinter camo scheme and many other schemes ( trhough not the hellcats) at http://www.ptboatworld.com/ZebraScheme.htm (http://www.ptboatworld.com/ZebraScheme.htm) and http://www.ptboats.org/ (http://www.ptboats.org/)
(http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll184/andyn_01/HigginsHellcat.jpg)
(http://www.ptboats.org/pti-info-images/p6-Radar-02.jpg)
(http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll184/andyn_01/HigginsHellcat2.jpg)
(http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll184/andyn_01/PT-564.gif)