"Tiger" wrote in message
...
KDR wrote:

Just wondering how come post-WW2 carrierborne torpedo planes such as
Firebrand, AM Mauler, Wyvern were all single-seaters. Only a few years
ago during the WW2, carrierborne torpedo planes required three crews -
pilot, bomber/navigator & radioman/gunner - without exception. What
brought this change?

By the wars end, air gunners were obsolete.

Oddly enough, the USAF still had gunners serving for a number of years after
WWII.

Most bombers were starting
to delete them to the point that by the time The jet age came, only a few
heavies had tail guns.

Not quite. The B-29's that went into Korea still carried their guns (though
their old GE central fire control system computer was not able to adequately
cope with the more rapid closing speeds of attacking Mig-15's), and the B-36
had them (lots of them, at 20mm no less). The B-36B had eight twin 20mm
turrets, and was delivered between 1948 and 1950. Likewise, the D model
(with its auxilliary jet engine pods) carried the same armament package, and
it did not begin showing up in active service until the B's stopped
appearing in 1950. According to what I have available, the removal of most
of the armament did not take place until the "Featherweight" program began,
reportedly in 1954 (well into the "jet age"), and even then did not apply to
the entire B-36 force.

Brooks

By the same token the torpedo bomber was
kind of dead too. By the deleting the 2nd man, you can make a smaller,
faster, plane.