Manufacturer: Grumman

Model: G-66C

Name: Chinese Cat

Type: Multi-purpose

Date:

Status: Demonstrator

Country: Free China

Service: Free Chinese Air Force

Designation: GJ-1 Biao

Officially the U.S. Navy canceled the XTSF-1 torpedo-bomber program before a prototype could be completed. The truth of the matter, however, is that the prototype had been partly completed, so that when Free China requested a multi-purpose aircraft from Grumman for possible local production, they merely took the unfinished G-66 prototype and finished it as the G-66C.

Due to rising tensions with Communist China the aircraft was test-flown in secrecy and shipped in crates to Formosa. It is unclear why the aircraft never reached its destinatation, but some sources pretend that a Communist Tupolev SB bomber raided the ship a few miles from the Chinese coasts.

Anyway, that was the end of the aircraft known inhouse as The Chinese Cat and which was to have been the GJ-1 彪 (Biao or "tiger cat").

Although Grumman never developed an aircraft for Free China, several companies such as Gloster (see here) or McDonnell did, and so it is not such a far-fetched notion that an aircraft such as the Biao could have been ordered from them too.

As the purpose here was to create an extremely plausible aircraft, I first set out to create an in-flight view of the actual G-66 proposal from scratch (see here). I then stretched it to resemble my G-66C derivative and applied markings.

The text and visual elements were adapted from genuine Grumman documents of the time. The name and logo "The Chinese Cat" are of course my invention...

To make the Biao story even more believable, I forged an imaginary company letter (adapted from a real Grumman document) that was supposedly sent to a "Mr. Lee" in China, along with the promotional photo... I believe that particular image has never been shown before and is exclusive to this site.

• Great work (GTX_Admin)
• Love the Chinese Cat! (TBD)
• Love the Chinese Cat   (NARSES2)
• Lovely plane, Stéphane!  It definitely looks too much like a B-25 to my eyes for my brain to accept it's a Grumman, though.  As a HUGE NAA buff, however, that's not a bad thing, aesthetically. (comradeloganov)

And yet this was fashioned as closely as possible to the original G-66 (XTSF-1) project. Look at the attachments for comparison!