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Curtiss SB2C Helldiver wreckage found in Oregon's woods.
On Mar 28, 9:29*pm, Matt Wiser wrote:
On Mar 28, 7:54*am, "Ken S. Tucker" wrote: On Mar 27, 7:15 pm, Matt Wiser wrote: On Mar 27, 2:12 pm, "Ken S. Tucker" wrote: On Mar 27, 6:15 am, Diogenes wrote: On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:47:36 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker" wrote: This article is 'less than flattering' about the Helldiver, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB2C_Helldiver If anyone disputes the article please advise, it's a wiki. It surprised me so many were also built in Canada. Ken My father was a WWII fighter pilot but flew the Helldiver several times on ferry missions. He said it was the worst-handling aircraft he ever had the misfortune to fly. * *Diogenes Yeah, just looking at it superficially, aerodynamically it's a dog. Things like a lot of curvature under the tail sucks the tail down, then the main wing blanks the elevator, your father deserves over time danger pay just to ferry it, "Helldiver" might be an appropriate, name. Ken There was another name that pilots called the aircraft: "Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class." The -1 version was the worst, but the -3 onward handled very well. Most a/c have 'idiosyncrasies' ((had to look up the spelin of that)), if the pilot is knowledgeable of them, he'd know what 'not' to do. It may be a case the Helldiver had a restricted flight envelope that required more respect (less forgiving) than other aircraft, so a properly trained pilot could handle the "beast". I've read that about the F-104, horses and wives. Ken- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - You're quite right, Keith. But the -1 was underpowered, and had a three-bladed prop. The -3 and beyond had some more horses in the engine, a four-blade prop, and the training regimen for SB2C pilots made sure nugget pilots knew what to do in the plane, and what not to do. VADM Marc Mitscher (ComTF-38/58) took some convincing, but when VB-19 arrived on Lexington with the -3 in July of '44 and showed him what the plane could do, he was convinced. He had reccommeded keeping the SBD in Fleet Service, but Douglas had shut down the SBD line, so the Navy had no choice.- That'd what I've read....the -1 had lots of issues which were fixed (mostly) in the -3, but by then the reputation was crappy. |
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