“Hell diver” was a heroic and death-defying name for both pilots and aircraft in the popular American imagination beginning in the 1920s. The SB2C was the third carrier-based dive bomber called “Helldiver” and produced by Curtiss. The Helldiver is also the last significant combat aircraft produced by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Changes in carrier tactics, technology, and weapons made the dive bomber obsolescent as the war progressed making the Helldiver the last of the type operated by the U.S. Navy dive bomber squadrons flew Curtiss SB2C Helldivers against Imperial Japan beginning in November 1943 until the end of the war. Navy and Marine Corps doctrine from the interwar period to the end of World War II was dive bombing, which was the use of an aircraft to deliver a bomb at a steep angle to increase accuracy. It served with various other Navy units until 1948 and entered the Museum collection in 1960. From September through December 1945, Bombing Squadron (VB) 92 aboard the USS Lexington flew it in the western Pacific and occupied Japan. This Helldiver was completed in May 1945, but the war ended a few months later, and it never saw combat. The Helldiver was the last dive-bomber operated by the Navy and the last significant combat aircraft produced by Curtiss-Wright. Changes in carrier tactics, technology, and weapons made dive-bombing-delivering a bomb at a steep angle to increase accuracy-obsolete as the war progressed. After a prolonged development, about 30 Navy squadrons operated Helldivers aboard 13 carriers. Navy bombing squadrons flew Helldiver dive-bombers against Japan from November 1943 to the war’s end in September 1945. Object Details Manufacturer Curtiss Wright Corporation Physical Description Single engine, two seat, folding wing, carrier based scout-bomber. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, African Art.
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