After leaving front-line US service, about two hundred Bearcats went to France. Surviving aircraft were then passed to South Vietnam, where Skyraiders and Trojans eventually replaced them, while Thailand also operated the type. The sequence shows how a fighter overtaken by one navy's transition could remain useful in other forces. Civilian racers valued the Bearcat because it was easy to modify and offered exceptional performance. The record-breaking Rare Bear demonstrates a technological afterlife very different from the wartime carrier-interceptor role for which the aircraft had been conceived.
Notable Point · 34:01-34:58
Foreign service and air racing kept the Bearcat useful
French, South Vietnamese, and Thai use extended the Bearcat's military life, while civilian racers exploited its performance and ease of modification.