The Grumman F8F Bearcat was an American single-engine carrier-based fighter aircraft that arrived too late to participate in World War II.Still, it was considered one of the best piston-engine fighters ever built, and even test pilot Eric Brown, known to have flown more airplane types than anyone else in history, considered it his favorite American aircraft.The F8F eventually found its way into the civilian market, but it took one legendary American pilot to put it back on the map, giving people something to talk about in the late 1980s when a heavily modified version shattered a world record that no one saw coming…