Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: simshell on January 29, 2004, 06:10:53 PM
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HELLDIVER - THE CURTISS SB2
Class: Dive Bomber
Stations: Pilot, Rear Gunner
Weapons: [Fixed] 2 Wing-mounted 20 mm Cannon
2 Rear-mounted .30 caliber Machine Guns
[Payload] 2000 lbs. of Bombs
6-5? Rockets
Ammunition: [MGs] 2000 rd/gun
[Cannon] 400 rd/gun
Firing Rate: [MGs] 825 rd/min (approx. 145 seconds of fire)
[Cannon] 450 rd/min (approx. 53 seconds of fire)
Span: 49? 8.6?
Length: 36? 8?
Wing Area: 39.2 sq. meters
Engine: Wright Cyclone GR-2600-8
Max HPwr: 1700
Ceiling: 24,200 ft
Cruise Speed: 137 kts
Max. Spd: 244 kts
Stall Spd: 77 kts [Level Flight]
Std Fuel: 320 gal
Max Fuel: 566 gal
now this is a VERY USEFUL dive bomber better then the TBM at jabo roll
and the CANNON 20mms :D
now plz understand that i got this info from 1942 T H E PAC I F I C air war
very old still fun game this is were i found out about the HELLDIVER
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This plane was notiours for being a pos. A much Better plane that would work in it's stead would be a Grace.
As to the Helldiver as a plane:Quotes from Bombers of WW2 ISBN # 1-56799-683-3:
"the only thing wrong was the aircraft itself.To a man the US Navy prefered the old SBD, which simply kept on in the forfront of the battle"
"The other mass-produced Curtiss of WW2 was the SO3C Seamew, and it is doubtful if two less-successful aircraft have been ever built in numbers."
" The experance played a magor part in the decline of the once pre-ement names of Curtis and Wright in the imediate post war era"
"Structural weakness, generaly poor handeling, shockingly inadequate stabality(espichaly in yaw and pitch) and unexceptable stall characteristics."
" crashes, inflight breakups and carier landing accidents continued at the very top of the league table"
" To everyone in the US Navy this aircraft was The Beast"
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I love SBD :D:aok
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Originally posted by brady
A much Better plane that would work in it's stead would be a Grace.
beat me too it!
-Sik
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Originally posted by brady
This plane was notiours for being a pos. A much Better plane that would work in it's stead would be a Grace.
" To everyone in the US Navy this aircraft was The Beast"
There's a reason why the SB2C Helldiver was referred to as the 'Son of a B*tch, Second Class'...
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lol, never heard that one:)
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Read Eric Brown, he hated it and indeed rated the Dauntless as being a better aircraft.
No doubt someone will come up now with rock solid evidence that the Helldiver was God's gift to American aviation in WWII...
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I have Eric Browns book, Wings Of the Luftwaffe, I know he wrote some articles for perodicals but was not aware he had another book....
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i wish the divebombers had a more practical role. but they don't. jug with 2500 lbs and a 275 mph cruising speed well makes em obsolete. as do other jabos.
helldiver is kinda a cool looking plane with that wierd tail.
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Well, although a flying pig, the Helldiver could be ok on ground attack jobs in AH. From CV I mean.
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Sb2? surely would be appreciated (by me) But I'm afraid it will untrone the Sbd with having 20mm's, same rear gunnery and a much larger bombload!
I mean...who would fly the sbd if we can have the sb2?
Maybe the J2FC-Duck would be a nice addition (among with other seaplanes)
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Realy for the MA, why not just take a C hog up, if on a CV, for the CT and any event, their are lot of other Navy planes we realy nead, no mater how you slice it the Helldiver is prety low on the priourity list imo.
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Hap's right. Divebombers get no use except for the Stuka, and that's only because of the low-yield tactical nuke it carries.
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Originally posted by brady
lol, never heard that one:)
It's mentioned on several websites that I found with a quick search:
http://www.warbirdalley.com/sb2c.htm
http://www.geocities.com/copeab/Vehicles/Helldiver.htm
http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=24
http://www.acepilots.com/planes/helldiver.html
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Originally posted by Ecliptik
Hap's right. Divebombers get no use except for the Stuka, and that's only because of the low-yield tactical nuke it carries.
ROFL
but yes, like the sbd, it's more effective to dive bomb with a lanc I would say...
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Originally posted by brady
Realy for the MA, why not just take a C hog up, if on a CV, for the CT and any event, their are lot of other Navy planes we realy nead, no mater how you slice it the Helldiver is prety low on the priourity list imo.
Cant agree more. The Grace, or even the Jill or Judy would help make late war Pacific events and CT setups a bit more balanced. Each of those planes at least brings SOMETHING to the table that the Val and Kate lack.
-Sik
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The fact is, as long as the late model allied fighters (ie: P-47, P-38, and P-51) are unperked, divebombers like the helldiver or sbd will never see much use, there slow, and not very survivable. Why take one of those when you could take a P-51, carry almost the same ordnance, get there faster, and be able to fight after you drop your bombs?
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I mentioned this in the AH2 forum, but an easy way to make divebombers viable is give them a special AP bomb (which they did have in RL) that is the only thing that can kill a CV. How many divebombers killed ships in WWII? How many level bombers did?
I dont know if its possible, but giving the divebombers the specialized ship killing weapon they should have would instantly make them useful. You could still kill destroyers and cruisers with regular bombs, but CV's would require an AP bomb.