about these dive bombers

[FLS]

Isn't that A for Army?

[Lusche]

.

[Arlo]

You sure about that?  "The piston-engined Skyraider was designed during World War II to meet United States Navy requirements for a carrier-based, single-seat, long-range, high performance dive/torpedo bomber"

The more I think I know ........

[FLS]

Max Loadout 8000lbs, same as a B-17.   

[icepac]

Nuke capable via toss bombing.

[Vraciu]

You sure about that?  "The piston-engined Skyraider was designed during World War II to meet United States Navy requirements for a carrier-based, single-seat, long-range, high performance dive/torpedo bomber"

You are correct.

The A in A-1 is for Attack. Maybe the D was for Dive when it was the AD-1.

My buddy CAS that I flew with in Dawn of Aces and Aces High flew the A-1 in SEA.
He said it was a fighter.   

The A-1 lineage starts as a Torpedo/Dive Bomber (BTD and subsequent BT2D)--and even as the AD had massive dive brakes. 

[FLS]

Quibbling over prototypes. If you want to call it a dive bomber I'm cool with that.


If dive brakes make it a dive bomber then the F4U is a dive bomber. 

[Oldman731]

Isn't that A for Army?

You know, I never thought of that!  I'll bet you're right.

...that must mean that the planes I fly...were purchased from the Navy...?

- oldman

[FLS]

You know, I never thought of that!  I'll bet you're right.

...that must mean that the planes I fly...were purchased from the Navy...?

- oldman

Actually I think you're correct, it was A for attack, just like they used B for bomber, C for cargo, P for pursuit and PT for primary trainer.

[DaveBB]

The F4U prototype was a bomber, an aerial bomber. It was designed to have 30 bomblets inside of each wing to drop on enemy bomber formations.

The SB2 Helldiver was such a horrible aircraft that aircrews turned to using the SBD and fighters as an alternative to get away from using it.  This is all well documented in Hugh Ambrose's book "The Pacific". One specific flaw was aileron rollers snapping on dive pull outs.  The plane would enter a dive, drop ord, and on pull out the control cables on the ailerons would go slack, or in many cases, cause the plane to characteristically go inverted.  Multiple aircrews were lost until one plane finally made it back to base to report what happened.

Another problem was that the landing gear lever could not be reached without loosening the shoulder straps.  So pilots would take off with loose shoulder straps.  If they had to ditch immediately on take-off, they would bash their head on the gunsight, usually killing them.

[oboe]

Before too long I'd like to see the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver get a shot in AH.   It can carry 2,000 lbs of bombs or a torpedo internally, another 1000lbs of bombs or 8x5" rockets on wing hardpoints, and has 2x20mm wing-mounted cannon for strafing ground targets.

Plus it is one wicked-cool ugly aircraft:


Helldivers saw a lot of action after their introduction in late '43.  They fought over Rabaul, the Marianas, Philippines, Taiwan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan, helped sink the battleships Mushashi and Yamato.  Despite a reputation for being difficult to handle at low speeds, was responsible for the destruction of more Japanese targets than any other aircraft.^[1]



[1] http://www.warbirdalley.com/sb2c.htm
   

[Vraciu]

The F4U prototype was a bomber, an aerial bomber. It was designed to have 30 bomblets inside of each wing to drop on enemy bomber formations.

The SB2 Helldiver was such a horrible aircraft that aircrews turned to using the SBD and fighters as an alternative to get away from using it.  This is all well documented in Hugh Ambrose's book "The Pacific". One specific flaw was aileron rollers snapping on dive pull outs.  The plane would enter a dive, drop ord, and on pull out the control cables on the ailerons would go slack, or in many cases, cause the plane to characteristically go inverted.  Multiple aircrews were lost until one plane finally made it back to base to report what happened.

Another problem was that the landing gear lever could not be reached without loosening the shoulder straps.  So pilots would take off with loose shoulder straps.  If they had to ditch immediately on take-off, they would bash their head on the gunsight, usually killing them.

The Helldiver wound up being a good platform.  It suffered in part by its design requirements, namely having to fit on existing elevators.  The Stirling had issues for the same reason (hangar size being the culprit).   Eventually the Helldiver became a potent weapon.    Many sources cite it as the leader in ship tonnage sunk during the war.

[BuckShot]

I'd like to see the rear gun retraction/ rear canopy open/close modeled Iif we ge the SB2C.

Closed could give a bit more speed, but the open cycle would take a few seconds from closed to to open.

[Arlo]

Before too long I'd like to see the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver get a shot in AH.   It can carry 2,000 lbs of bombs or a torpedo internally, another 1000lbs of bombs or 8x5" rockets on wing hardpoints, and has 2x20mm wing-mounted cannon for strafing ground targets.

Plus it is one wicked-cool ugly aircraft:
(Image removed from quote.)

Helldivers saw a lot of action after their introduction in late '43.  They fought over Rabaul, the Marianas, Philippines, Taiwan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan, helped sink the battleships Mushashi and Yamato.  Despite a reputation for being difficult to handle at low speeds, was responsible for the destruction of more Japanese targets than any other aircraft.^[1]



[1] http://www.warbirdalley.com/sb2c.htm
   

 

But also .....


  (Events)

[FLS]

The A in A-1 is for Attack. Maybe the D was for Dive when it was the AD-1.

Had time for a little reading , the D in AD-1 stood for Douglas, the manufacturer. The A was for Attack. So the production version was always designated an attack aircraft even though the design spec was for a combination dive bomber, torpedo bomber, attack aircraft.