And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
SB2C-4E Helldivers with Bombing Squadron 87 flying from USS Ticonderoga, May 1945.
SB2C--Son of a bitch -second class. They had so many defects from the factory that the first ship to get them (Essex class USS Yorktown), had her skipper (Browning) order every one of them dumped over the side. Almost every loss of that AC was dew to structural failure. Every thing was wrong with it. The guns didn't work. The wings wouldn't fold, or if they did they would fold up in flight. in 1944 over 600 defects were listed. It was so bad that many ships refused to use them and used F6F's as dive bombers instead, as both the F6F and the SB2C were limited to the same bomb load--1 500 pound bomb. The SB2C was such a disaster that it caused the rush order of its replacement in 1944. The AD-1 "Skyraider" that was to stay in service for the next, almost 30 years. The SB2C was so bad that it actually killed more of its own US Navy aircrews than the Japanese did. Look it up. it is one of the earliest scandal/coverups in the Pentagon. It was hushed up because "winner".---Ray
My dad worked on these during ww2. of course the USMC was handed these by USN as usual, like the Corsair, the Shit Box Curtis(his words) was typical of the way the Marines got weapons. Navy couldnt use is, well we bought anyway give to the marines. dad thought is was just a mess. the Marines bolted the wings down when used off a runway. they removed stuff that just didnt work. they liked the 20mm cannons but learned to never ever fire when pulling g's. fires started after resetting circuit breakers in flight so they put a stop to that. the props were electric and would run away.lots and lots of electrical issues. bomb release failed so often that the emergency manual release was always used. I worked with SPADs while in the USAF in the 1970s. what a beast. the perfect low altitude attack aircraft. a fighter only in the wildest of wet dreams. old school bomber depended a lot on pilot quality. together, the most lethal machine I ever worked with.
How long did they remain in actual service?
ReplyDeleteWikipedia said the French bought some up to 1954.
DeleteThe US Navy first used them in combat in Nov. 1943 and retired the last of them in 1947, replacing them with Skyraiders, a vastly better aircraft.
DeleteSB2C--Son of a bitch -second class. They had so many defects from the factory that the first ship to get them (Essex class USS Yorktown), had her skipper (Browning) order every one of them dumped over the side. Almost every loss of that AC was dew to structural failure. Every thing was wrong with it. The guns didn't work. The wings wouldn't fold, or if they did they would fold up in flight. in 1944 over 600 defects were listed. It was so bad that many ships refused to use them and used F6F's as dive bombers instead, as both the F6F and the SB2C were limited to the same bomb load--1 500 pound bomb. The SB2C was such a disaster that it caused the rush order of its replacement in 1944. The AD-1 "Skyraider" that was to stay in service for the next, almost 30 years. The SB2C was so bad that it actually killed more of its own US Navy aircrews than the Japanese did. Look it up. it is one of the earliest scandal/coverups in the Pentagon. It was hushed up because "winner".---Ray
ReplyDeleteMy dad worked on these during ww2. of course the USMC was handed these by USN as usual, like the Corsair, the Shit Box Curtis(his words) was typical of the way the Marines got weapons. Navy couldnt use is, well we bought anyway give to the marines.
ReplyDeletedad thought is was just a mess. the Marines bolted the wings down when used off a runway. they removed stuff that just didnt work. they liked the 20mm cannons but learned to never ever fire when pulling g's. fires started after resetting circuit breakers in flight so they put a stop to that. the props were electric and would run away.lots and lots of electrical issues. bomb release failed so often that the emergency manual release was always used.
I worked with SPADs while in the USAF in the 1970s. what a beast. the perfect low altitude attack aircraft. a fighter only in the wildest of wet dreams. old school bomber depended a lot on pilot quality. together, the most lethal machine I ever worked with.