Hi FC,
Thanks for checking.
Regarding the F6F please take a look at the following RL reference:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...1993086199.pdf
It is an analysis of V-g data obtained from several naval airplanes (the F6F among them) done in 1950 by the Langley Aeronautical Lab at Langley AFB.
On page 21 you will find the graph of the F6F, showing the typical design load factor of 8G (most common in US planes) but with data of occurances where the design loads were exceeded as part of normal operations, without any structural penalties, and the flight envelope enlarged due to expected perdictions of occurances up to 5,000 hours.
The conclusion of this analysis (page 7) was that since for these airplanes (F6F, F8F, etc) the design limit load factors of maneverable airplanes are exceeded in a relatively short period of time, the
design ultimate load factor is a more appropriate level on which to base the safety of maneuverable airplanes rather then the limit load factor.
ViFF