we need a Curtiss SB2C-3 Helldiver

[5PointOh]

So was it better than the SBD???

[StokesAk]

Yea was faster more ords and had 20mm's 

[Saxman]

Also was notoriously difficult to fly, early models were nowhere near as stable in their attack dives, durability was suspect, among dozens of other teething problems. It would be a nice addition, especially as all Navy SBD squadrons aboard the fleet carriers transitioned into the Helldiver after Phillippine Sea, so she'd be great for late-war FSO/scenario setups. But there's other higher priorities.

[Latrobe]

I don't know why you're all giving stealth a hard time. Sure he doesn't spell perfectly or use grammar correctly sometimes, but atleast he isn't posting requests like "OMG liek we ned da sb2 cuz itz so kewl!!11!!! yes!!11!!! i men com on!! it just loks so kewl!!"


I, for one, would like to see more carrier planes in AHII first before any other plane. Right now all we have is 2 zekes, a Seafire, and the rest are F4U's and F4F, F6F, FM2.

[Saxman]

I don't know why you're all giving stealth a hard time. Sure he doesn't spell perfectly or use grammar correctly sometimes, but atleast he isn't posting requests like "OMG liek we ned da sb2 cuz itz so kewl!!11!!! yes!!11!!! i men com on!! it just loks so kewl!!"


I, for one, would like to see more carrier planes in AHII first before any other plane. Right now all we have is 2 zekes, a Seafire, and the rest are F4U's and F4F, F6F, FM2.

You forgot the D3A, B5N, SBD and TBM.

Like I said, I'd like to see the SB2C eventually, but it's probably not a high-priority aircraft seeing as the models we'd likely get weren't much of an improvement over the Dauntless, anyway. It wasn't until the last couple variants that the Helldiver lived up to its expectations, and I'm not even certain if those models ever saw combat before the war ended.

[Nemisis]

I don't know why you're all giving stealth a hard time.

I, for one, would like to see more carrier planes in AHII first before any other plane. Right now all we have is 2 zekes, a Seafire, and the rest are F4U's and F4F, F6F, FM2.

I'm not. I am trying to help. I agree with you on the carrier plane set. It is lacking, especially for the British. I suggested the helldiver and firefly a while ago, but the threads didn't get enough people in them and died.

I just wish we could have carrier planes with some actuall fire power (bombwise); The TBD can carry 2,000lbs of bombs, not enough to knock out a hanger. I know that the carrier decks weren't big enough to launch big bombers, but B25's took off of carrier decks and raided tokyo once. I think we could get a plane with enough ord to knock out a hanger without rockets.

[Saxman]

I know that the carrier decks weren't big enough to launch big bombers, but B25's took off of carrier decks and raided tokyo once. I think we could get a plane with enough ord to knock out a hanger without rockets.

Theoretically the F4U-1D could, we just don't have that ordinance package (2000lb centerline bomb) and it'd be REAL tough to do that without a catapult.

Single-engine carrier-borne bombers just don't have the same ordinance load as multi-engine dedicated bombers. Simple as that.

[Nemisis]

The anministrators said it takes something like 2,750 lbs to knock out a hanger. And why don't we have a catapult?

[Saxman]

F4U-1D could carry 4000lbs of bombs + rockets (started a thread about this already). I'm not aware of any doing so off a carrier, however.

As for why no catapults, my guess is partly due to coding as Yorktown and Essex-class carriers, and even the smaller Independence-class light carriers, had them.

[Nemisis]

What carrier or carrier class do we have in the game?

And sorry, I though he meant that it had a 2,000lb bomb centerline and nothing else.

[Saxman]

The class modelled is the Essex-class (USS Randolph IIRC). Whatever reason they had for not modelling a catapult I don't know, but the point is they had a good enough reason not to do it.

[Nemisis]

Yes, but I just like to know things, so I won't keep wondering about the reasons we don't have them when I could have used them most.

Scuzzy, could we Puuleazzzz (streched out please) get the catapult on carriers?

[Karnak]

Japanese and/or British CV aircraft are needed more.  Particularly the D4Y "Judy" and B6N2 "Jill".

Nemisis,

Skuzzy is the hardware guy, HiTech and Pyro are the decision makers who design the game.

[Nemisis]

Ooops. Well, what can you expect form a lowly nickle?

I see it as zinc is Pvt.
copper is Cpl.
nickle is Sgt.
silver is Lt.
gold is Capt. or Maj.
plutonium is Colonel or General.

[bj229r]

It sucked, the pilots and commanders hated it

The Curtiss dive bomber’s debut with the fleet was less than promising. Although the Helldiver had originally been intended to exceed the performance parameters of the Dauntless by a wide margin, VF-17’s commander, Lt. Cmdr. James E. Vose of VB-17, declared that–aside from folding wings, a feature the Dauntless never possessed–’the SB2C offered little improvement on the SBD…the SBD would be my choice.’

It was not difficult to see his point. The SB2C-1 could carry a single 1,000-pound or 1,600-pound bomb in its internal bomb bay, plus two 100-pound bombs externally under the wings. It had a top speed of 281 mph and an initial climb rate of 1,750 feet per minute. The Helldiver’s maximum range was 1,100 miles, and its combat radius was 276 miles. By comparison, the SBD-5, which carried the same bombload, had a top speed of 253 mph and could climb at 1,620 feet per minute. The Dauntless’ maximum range was 1,100 miles, and its combat radius was 285 miles.

Moreover, the supposedly obsolescent Dauntless enjoyed the lowest combat loss rate of any U.S. Navy aircraft of that period. SBDs acquired an enviable reputation in the critical battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, the Eastern Solomons, Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal, and many Navy dive-bomber crews were understandably reluctant to relinquish an airplane that had earned their trust. A less charitable VB-17 pilot irreverently remarked that ‘the SB-Deuce had more bugs than an Oriental flophouse.’

Commander Herbert D. Riley, who served on the staff of the deputy chief of Naval Operations (Air) during that period, was one of the officers responsible for procuring new aircraft for the Navy. He later recalled that ‘the SB2C was so tricky to fly, compared to the SBD, and so hard to maintain that the skippers of the new carriers preferred to have the old SBDs. We had quite a battle forcing the SB2C down their respective throats.’

Curtiss was less successful in forcing the Helldiver down the throats of the British Admiralty, which only procured 26 of the planes. Only one Naval Air Arm squadron received Helldivers, and that unit was quickly disbanded without ever serving on a carrier. Captain Eric Brown, the test pilot who evaluated the Helldiver for the Royal Navy, flew nearly every type of dive bomber, including a captured Ju-87 Stuka. After piloting the SBD-5 Dauntless, the Vultee Vengeance and the Helldiver, Brown rated the Curtiss product a distant third. ‘One could only sympathize with the U.S. Navy pilots flying this unpleasant aircraft from carriers in the Pacific,’ he later wrote.

http://www.historynet.com/curtiss-sb2c-helldiver-the-last-dive-bomber.htm