Combat aircraft. "Beast", which is a hellish duck

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:49

The history of aviation is a complex thing, and sometimes it is very difficult to clearly determine whether an airplane was good or bad. Or it even happened that the plane, at first clearly considered disgusting, manifested itself in such a way that it left behind a good memory.

An example is the American bomber B-26 "Marauder", which at first received the unflattering nickname "widowmaker", and ended the war with the rank of one of the best front-line bombers. Or the very controversial Soviet fighter LaGG-3, which, with the help of an air-cooled engine, became the La-5 and La-7, aircraft appreciated by Soviet pilots.

That's about the same thing happened with the "Hellish Diver". In general, the name of the plane has nothing to do with some mystical dive into hell. No mysticism. The Helldiver is just a duck. A variegated grebe that lives in the Americas. Just a bird, outstanding in that it can dive very deeply and for a long time, swimming under water for quite decent distances and emerging unexpectedly and with special effects. That is why the British nicknamed the duck "the water witch", and the Americans called the "hellish diver".

Curtiss products, Infernal Diver, had a stuck name. This was the name of the deck bombers that were developed by the company.

The first, "Curtiss" F8C, appeared in 1929. He is considered the ancestor of the class of carrier-based dive bombers, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Naturally, it was a biplane.

Combat aircraft. "Beast", which is a hellish duck

Then, in 1935, he was replaced by the SBC reconnaissance bomber, also made according to the biplane scheme, but more advanced, with a retractable landing gear and a closed cockpit. And the SBC went down in history as the last biplane in service with the US Navy.

Well, our hero became the third "diver".

In general, in 1938, the Douglas SBD Dontless dive bomber was adopted by the US Navy. The car was quite modern, a monoplane with a closed cockpit, retractable landing gear and good flight characteristics, but something prompted the naval command to announce the tactical and technical requirements for a new deck-based dive bomber with even higher characteristics.

The US Navy wanted a new bomber, with increased speed, range and bomb load.

The standard combat load of the Dontless was a 500-pound (227 kg) bomb, but in the late 1930s this ammunition was no longer considered sufficient to sink large warships. In accordance with the requirements on the new bomber, the bomb load was doubled - either one 1000-pound (454 kg) bomb, or two 500-pound bombs.

But the biggest requirement for the new car was size. Many firms refused to even try to build an aircraft that had to fit into the geometric requirements of the protocol.

The stumbling block was the platform of a standard aircraft carrier aircraft lift on an aircraft carrier - 12.2 x 14.6 meters. The naval commanders categorically insisted that TWO aircraft were to be placed on this platform.

As a result, there were only two people left to compete for the contract. Curtiss and Brewster.

Plane "Curtissa" immediately puzzled the engineers, demonstrating too high stall speed and low directional stability. I had to engage in battle with an aircraft that did not really start flying.

They got rid of the first drawback by increasing the wing area from 35.9 to 39.2 sq.m and the installation of automatic slats, which were released and retracted synchronously with the chassis.

With the second, it was more difficult, because the classical way of increasing stability by lengthening the tail of the fuselage was not suitable here because of the already mentioned overall limits. The Helldiver is already very short and very thick. I had to solve the problem by increasing the tail area.

But I managed to frolic very well in terms of weapons. Here the Curtiss Yankees exploded in full blast, sending a 500-pound bomb back into the past on the Dountless's external sling.

The bulky bomb bay of the fat Helldiver could easily hold two 500-pound or one 1000-pound bombs. To avoid falling bombs dropped into the propeller during a dive, they were suspended on special swinging trapezoids.

And then miracles began, which were allowed by the "Wright-Cyclone" R-2600-8 with a capacity of 1700 hp. In the reloading version, with a limited supply of fuel, it was possible to hang a 1600-pound (726 kg) bomb or an Mk.13 airborne torpedo. In these cases, the bomb bay doors remained half-open, which markedly reduced flight performance, but it was possible to bang from the heart.

But there was order with small arms. Two synchronous 12, 7-mm "Browning" was installed above the engine and two more - in the center section of the wing, outside the rotor rotation disk. To protect the rear hemisphere, a pair of "Browning" caliber 7, 62 mm served on the ring turret of the gunner-radio operator.

To increase the sector of their fire, the plane was equipped with a fashionable novelty of that time - a folding, retractable gargrot, nicknamed the "turtle".

In general, according to the project, they wanted to install a shooting tower on the Helldiver, similar to the one that stood on the Avengers, but it simply did not fit and the tower had to be abandoned.

Flight tests began on December 18, 1940. Testers' reports were very contradictory. On the one hand, the plane demonstrated really good flight data. The maximum speed reached 515 km / h - a rather high figure for a bomber at that time. But at the same time, the car turned out to be insufficiently stable on all three axes and poorly controlled at low speeds. This was especially sad, because it was precisely at such speeds that the plane had to be landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Meanwhile, amid the roar of bomb explosions in Pearl Harbor, America entered World War II.

She needed new bombers urgently and in large numbers. And there was nothing to choose from. The second participant in the competition, the Brewster's plane, the Buccaneer, actually turned out to be even worse than the Helldiver. It was nevertheless put into production, but none of the 750 built cars made it to the front. We did not risk it and used the plane as a training or target towing vehicle.

And here the Americans decided to take a full risk. Since there was only one way out, namely to bring the Helldiver to its senses, because the test results could not be called successful. And a very risky decision was made: to launch the Helldiver into series, and further tests and the necessary changes in the design had to go in parallel with the serial production!

The layout was very risky. But in June 1942, the first production SB2C-1 rolled off the assembly line.

SB2C-1 was quite different from the prototype, and not only for the better.

Pylons were reinforced under the wing consoles for suspension of two 100-pound (45-kg) bombs, additional 220-liter fuel tanks or machine-gun containers. 12, 7-mm synchronous machine guns, standing above the engine, were moved to the center section, and the turret 7, 62-mm "Browning" was replaced by one "Browning" 12, 7 mm.

From the equipment added a radio compass and anti-ship radar ASB.

The protection was also strengthened by installing a frontal bulletproof glass and an armored back for the pilot, having reserved a place for a radio operator, and the fuel tanks were protected.

Modified "Helldiver" for 1360 kg. This could not but affect his flight data. The maximum speed dropped from 515 to 452 km / h, and the landing speed (do not forget, this is a carrier-based aircraft!) Increased from 111 to 127 km / h.

And nevertheless, the naval leadership had nowhere to go. While on the fields, more precisely, in the waters of the battles, the Dontlesss were still carrying out combat missions with their last strength, the command of the US Navy ordered 4,000 Helldivers.

The first "Helldivers" began to enter combat units only in the late autumn of 1942. The first new aircraft to receive were the squadrons of the aircraft carriers Essex, Bunker Hill and Yorktown.

And the rodeo began …

The pilots, accustomed to the extremely obedient and easy-to-fly Dontless, had a lot of trouble with the stricter and more complex Helldiver. Deck landing accidents became commonplace, and the plane received the offensive nickname "Beast", which can be translated as "monster" or simply "brute."

The rodeo continued on the aircraft carriers throughout the winter of 1942-43. Pilots tumbled on the decks of aircraft carriers, tore brake cables, crashed into superstructures and flew overboard, trying to curb the "cattle". Some have already begun to talk that the Helldivers should be sent to the landfill as soon as possible and the good old Dontless should be returned.

And then … Then it started to work!

Gradually the pilots got used to the Helldiver's increased landing speed and tight maneuverability, and it was time to go into action.

The baptism of fire of the "cattle" took place on November 11, 1943. Squadron VB-17 from the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill participated in the raid on Rabaul, Japan's largest naval and air force base in the South Pacific.

The raid was more than successful. The Americans lost two aircraft, sinking the destroyer Sutsunami, the cruisers Agano, Yubari and damaged three more destroyers.

The next combat operation of the Helldivers was air support for the landing on Tarawa Atoll, which was more than successful. Mainly due to the very weak air defense of the Japanese.

But the success of the Helldivers over Rabaul and Tarawa greatly improved the aircraft's reputation, and the naval command made the final choice between the Heldiver and the Dontless, and in January 1944 the rapid process of replacing old dive bombers with new ones began.

In the meantime, the Curtiss continued to work on the aircraft, improving it. In the spring of 1944, the squadron began to receive a new modification of the "Helldiver" SB2C-1C. The last letter "C" in its index meant cannon, that is, the modification was cannon.

In the center section of the wing of this modification, instead of four large-caliber machine guns, it was possible to place two 20-mm Hispano cannons with simply masterpiece ammunition - 800 rounds per barrel. More than 700 aircraft of this modification were produced.

A float version of the Helldiver was offered to the Navy.

At first, the fleet became interested in the aircraft and even ordered 294 production copies, but then they decided that there was no particular need for such an aircraft, and the order was canceled.

By the way, a land version was also produced, without naval equipment and folding wings. A-25 was produced in the amount of 410 vehicles and transferred to the US Marine Corps.

On the whole, despite a rather sad start, the Helldiver became the most massive naval dive bomber.

It is difficult to say today how much the Curtiss worked out mistakes and improved the aircraft, but there was simply not much choice. More precisely, it was not there at all, and the American pilots sat at the controls of this plane and did their duty.

Throughout the second half of the war, the Helldivers flew over the entire Pacific theater of operations as scouts, attack aircraft, bombers and torpedo bombers. With varying degrees of success.

There were also frankly unsuccessful operations, for example, in the battle of the Philippine Islands, out of 50 aircraft of this type, 41 were lost. But in general, the aircraft was a pretty tough nut to crack for Japanese fighters.

Was the Helldiver a "hellish duck" or was it a "brute"? The British did not appreciate it, and they refused the Helldivers offered under Lend-Lease.

In the United States, on the decks of aircraft carriers and coastal airfields, "Helldiver" was listed as a combat aircraft until 1948, after which it was withdrawn from service. Some of the bombers were transferred to Italy and France, and it was the French who remained the last flying machines of this type, having managed to fight in Indochina.

So here the situation can even be compared with our pilots, who fought not on what they would like, but on what was. Likewise, the Americans fought in Helldivers and fought successfully.

Probably, after all, there is more of a duck than a cattle …