Curtiss-Wright SB2C Helldiver Navy Bomber 

Gigachad step grandpa.

Was he close with Spock and Capt. Kirk?

Thanks for the post. My dad made parts for the "S O B 2nd class" (WWII Navy parlance). They refused him for service due to a foot injury so he worked at a defense plant instead. If I had known when #32 was in Pa I wuda been there with 5G's in my hand to fly. 2nd chair; 10G's if they would've let me fire the aft guns. LOL A hand salute to that pilot. When I was on Guam they found a torpedo that had been ditched by a crippled SB2 so he cold clear the 'mtn' at Barrigada sometime during the "Turkey Shoot" of Jun 44.

Tank.. as in slow, not maneuverable, lumbering hunk of metal?

+RussianFox -Or Russian, British, Japanese or German.

I dunno. A Spitfire sounds pretty nice to me.

Nothing sounds as good to me as the Rolls Royce Merlin!

My dad flew this plane off the Yorktown cv-10

No disrespect to your grandfather but the Helldiver was a POS. Most pilots preferred the SBD. My mother helped build the Grumman Avenger which, while not a dive bomber, was a much better aircraft.

Thanks for your dad's service. Yes I understand "son of a bitch 2nd class" LOL Also called the "BEAST". My dad was a sheetmetal mechanic at Curtiss in Columbus Oh. He made a lot of parts for the Helldivers (I could never learn what tho). If this one ever comes to my area Im willing to pay 5G's for a flight. 10 if they'll let me fire the twin 30's. LOL Dad tried to enlist but was turned down for bad feet. So he stood on his feet 10 and 12 hours a day 6 and sometimes 7 days a week to meet production requirements. Then he did the same at NAA making F86's and F100's for Korea later A3J's/A5C's during Nam. Died of a heart attack at work.

I have read that the aircrews did not like the Helldiver nearly as much as the SBD it replaced as far as flying characteristics and speed. Regards to your Dad.

@@olentangy74 Ive heard this.. ive also heard that some carriers returned the helldiver and got their SBD's back. That the helldivers were THAT bad.

It wasnt.. The Dauntless was better and even the Avenger out performed it. Hell, even the Hellcat became more effective when they started putting rockets on it. The helldiver was a terrible plane and almost ruined Curtiss.

Just thinking the same thing. The dude in the red shirt wouldn't stay quiet after asking a question, Rude.

My mom helped build the Avenger.

Dauntless has the Wright R1820 single row engine with 1200 HP. The Helldiver has the Wright R2600 double row engine with 1900 HP. The Helldiver had a bomb bay, the Dauntless carried its bombs externally. The Helldiver was 40 to 50 mph faster. Reportedly Admiral King wanted all Helldiver production to go to the US Navy and not give any to the British Navy. I think that was behind the claim that the Helldiver was a problem aircraft - to save face from turning down British requests for the aircraft.

@@danzervos7606 Its cool but i like the Skyraider better

The yellow with black bands, single engined aircraft is I believe a Lysander originally designed as an Army Communications aircraft that happened to find its niche dropping off and picking up agents, resistance members, and downed Allied aircrew from the Occupied Countries during WWII in Europe. The other aircraft, the twin engined one is a Bristol Blenheim Mark IV with the extended nose for the navigator's position. When it was first produced as a private venture in the '30's, the Blenheim was amongst the fastest British aircraft, however as time wore on and war approached, it's performance was becoming mediocre.

@Robert Mantell: You mean the Bristol Blenheim?

Yes looks to me like a Blenheim Mark IV.

They used to build Studebakers there.

Naval aviators opened the canopy so if they had a ditching they could get out of the aircraft easily.

Correct but CW wanted all the money. They probably would say R-3350. Actually it probably could have used the 3350. The A-1 did well with it. But the SB2C had aerodynamic issues as well as lack of power.

Wow, thanks! Didn't know that about the Stuka.

Unfortunately there are NO Devastators still in existence, unless you count the wrecks at the bottom of the ocean. The USS Midway museum did get a true-scale replica of a Devastator that was used in the 2019 movie Midway, but so far that's the closest any of us can come to seeing one for real.

@@DK-gy7ll That's not surprising considering that between Coral sea and Midway alone over 40% of the entire production run of Devestator's were wiped out. 41 out of 130 planes built shot down at Midway. I'm pretty sure the last few operational specimens would have been found aboard the USS Ranger in the Atlantic at the end of '42. All of the others having been shot down, lost in training accidents, or sank with their carriers.

I was literally reading about the SB2C's nick-name about 20 mins ago in my book, Air War and was wondering if anyone else knew about it, haha.

Son of a bitch 2nd class

The SB2C was instrumental in the sinking of the Yamato and Musashi battleships.

For one thing, fewer Helldivers were built than Avengers (just over 7000 vs nearly 10,000.) It didn't earn a very good reputation (underpowered, poor handling, among other factors) and the only reason the US Navy initially accepted it was because they were desperate for planes and thought it was be a good replacement for the Dauntless (which was actually superior in some regards.) Curtiss tried selling it everywhere they could and it did serve with some foreign services (Greece, Australia, Thailand and France, among others.) But dive bombing as a tactic was being phased out by the end of WWII, so purpose built dive bombers were living on borrowed time. It kept flying as a trainer, target tug, etc. until the mid 50s but that was it. Conversely, the Avenger served in more roles with more countries, and kept flying in some places into the 1960s.

With hellcats,avenger and corsairs

Ensign Eliminator was the F7U-3 Cutlass.

@@scootergeorge9576 was it the gutless I thought the helldiver had it first.

@@patrickradcliffe3837 Gutless too. A marine pilot called the F7U-3 "A thirsty dog with miserable range and performance." And most pilots preferred the SBD to the Helldiver. At least one squadron refused the CW aircraft insisting they keep their Douglas birds till the SB2C was forced upon them!

Hey guys don't perpetuate a bunch of claptrap. 1. It did not have a "rear turret". The gunner cranked the turtle deck above the guns into a stowed position which allowed the guns to elevate and traverse. 2. The SB2C, while not a perfect airplane, sank more naval tonnage in WW2 than any other aircraft(!). That's a pretty incredible figure for a so-called "Beast". Now it was bigger than the SBD Dauntless, so deck handling was difficult. SB2Cs sank the Yamato and Musashi- don't sell it short.

FYI the SB2c was originally required to have an enclosed power turret similar to but not the same as the TBF. There are photos of the mock up but it was abandoned in the chaos of the SB2C's development. . So I stand by rear turret (not plural though).

Yeah, that's great. It didn't operate in combat with one, so stand by your assertion.

My assertion was that it is a shame they couldn't get them to work. The Sb2c would have been more effective with a .50 single gun turret. The Avenger sure was.

Musashi was sunk by 17 bombs and 19 torpedoes. Yamato 11 torpedoes and 6 bombs. Just saying, the Avengers really sank them. The bombers just helped.

Length was limited by the size of the elevators on carriers. The aircraft looks (and was) to short to be naturally stable.

My father was a WW2 real hero, something completely lost today. He tuned down his Class valectorian, , and twice the Purple Heart, on HIS terms. Ivy leave smart, yet too young, down 3 times, seen a ton of action, all after Midway, all great battles. He lost 2 of his pilots, why Navy frowned on fratilization between pilots & enlisted men. You guys here on site w/ family on job, understand. Also a brilliant FDNY Officer, in Heaven now. If ever made a ton of money, I'd do anything to get soemone to remodel a perfect Helldiver, for me & my family to experience. Imagine a 70 degree or more dive!! A 19 year old kid. Amazing, why they truly were the BEST of the BEST.