Grumman XTSF

XTSF
Mockup of the XTSF-1's forward fuselage
Role	Torpedo scout
Manufacturer	Grumman
Primary user	United States Navy
Number built	None
Developed from	F7F Tigercat

The Grumman XTSF was a proposed twin-engine torpedo scout aircraft, designed by Grumman for the United States Navy towards the end of World War II. Based on the design of the Grumman F7F Tigercat fighter, enlarged and with the addition of a bomb bay, the XTSF was deemed too large for carrier operations, and the project was cancelled before any aircraft were built. Instead, the Navy chose to order the single-engine XTB3F, which became the successful AF Guardian.

In 1944, it was determined that the Grumman XTB2F, then under development for the Navy, would be too large to practically and safely operate from aircraft carriers. Even the new Midway-class aircraft carriers, known as "battle carriers" (CVB) and the largest aircraft carriers built by any nation to that point, would have difficulty operating the massive aircraft, which was the size of a U.S. Army Air Force medium bomber. As a result, in late June 1944, Grumman submitted its G-66 design to the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer). After a review of the design by BuAer during the following month, a revised design was submitted, and on August 17 the existing contract for the XTB2F was modified to instead order two XTSF-1 aircraft, to be based on Grumman's F7F-2 Tigercat two-seat, twin-engined fighter-bomber, the first prototype intended to be a conversion of a F7F airframe.

A mid-wing, all-metal, cantilever monoplane with two Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radial engines mounted in streamlined nacelles under the wing, the XTSF-1 was intended to carry two crew members in tandem seats, and featured an internal bomb bay and a SCR-720 radar set, the radar later being replaced in the design by an AN/APS-3 or AN/APS-4 set. A second seat was added for the radar operator.

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