![]() ![]() None of the SB2C’s features were entirely new, only the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine had yet to be proven on other aircraft, but some features had not previously appeared on a Curtiss design, and some of the internal systems pushed the state-of-the-art. The Navy’s requirements for this new monoplane dive bomber were challenging: it had to be able to carry a significant weight of weaponry internally while incorporating specific equipment and structural features within an airframe small enough to fit two on the elevators of the new Essex class carriers. In 1938, just a year after the first deliveries of SBC-3s, the Navy issued a specification for a new monoplane dive bomber that would result in the SB2C, the third Curtiss plane to carry the name “Helldiver” but the first to carry it as an official service nickname. Navy, National Museum of Naval Aviation, photo No. The Navy, however, only expected it to be a stopgap for what would come next. Accordingly, the new airplane was designated SBD, the Dauntless. Suitably modified, the aircraft was reclassed as a scout-bomber (SB) around the time Northrop had become Douglas’ El Segundo division. It saw an opportunity to improve a plane that had competed with the SBC for the Navy contract: the monoplane Northrop BT-1. 1996.253.094Įven as the Navy placed its first orders for the biplane SBC in 1936, the Navy was already looking for a monoplane to replace it. The SBC-3 entered Navy service in 1937 and was the last biplane combat aircraft to see Navy service. The SBC was a biplane design that began in 1933 as a two-seat fighter with dive bombing capabilities (XF11C) and was subsequently revised to scout-bomber specifications. The SB2C Helldiver has connections to Curtiss’ previous Navy dive bomber, the SBC, also called the Helldiver (the Curtiss company seemed fond of the name). Thus, the SB2C was the last dive bomber in the Navy’s inventory. By the end of the war, changes in technology meant other aircraft could deliver an equal or greater ordnance load with comparable accuracy, eliminating the need for a specialized dive bomber. Navy’s frontline carrier-based dive bomber for much of World War II, but problems with its development delayed its introduction and saddled it with a bad reputation. The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver would have been the U.S. ![]()
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