Helldiver at World War II Weekend 2012, Reading, Pa.

[@craigpennington1251]

What a super cool aircraft. Some one some where has to get another one of these into the air. What a shame the world trashes stuff after a war. Thank you to all who flew this fantastic aircraft for our freedom and to those who work hours on end to restore and fly once more these great machines. Great video too.

[@thethirdman225]

Hate to tell ya but it was a rubbish aircraft. Whatever successes it achieved were attributable to its crews.

[@craigpennington1251]

@@thethirdman225 You know I really don't give a crap if it were rubbish or not, I still like the thing. And for what I would like to use it for, it fits the bill perfectly. I can't really bash an aircraft until I've flown it. I don't see flying one of these or a lot of others to make that call.

[@thethirdman225]

Craig Pennington Read Eric “Winkle” Brown’s assessment of it. He was scathing. And in case you’re thinking he had some kind of anti-American bias, his views on Grumman types, the Hellcat, the Wildcat and the Avenger were extremely favourable. He liked the Dauntless too.

[@craigpennington1251]

@@thethirdman225 Will do. No I don't think he has but all are entitled to their own opinions about things.

[@thethirdman225]

Craig Pennington True

[@danh1945]

I knew an old timer who flew these in the Navy. He said the cockpit seemed to be laid out as an afterthought. OOPS! we need a handle to crank open the canopy...just put it somewhere over there type stuff. He was really a great guy with some fun stories. He flew the F7F as well. He said he asked, how the hell are you supposed to get out of this thing? Open the canopy, pray, unstrap, pray, roll inverted, pray was his answer.

[@gfaverill]

My father was in the Marines in WW2 and flew in the SB2C as the radioman/ gunner. He served in the Philippines and in China.

[@marcd__-101]

Thanks for posting. My grandpa was head of building wings on these at a Curtiss factory in Ohio during ww2. Cool to see it fly.

[@thesillysadist3389]

Great post I love seeing the sb2c my great uncle was lost at sea in one it blows my mind what his life must have been like

[@Mr.SisterFisster]

Fun fact i just made up, the tail is made to be so big to offset the affect of being riddled by the rear gunner...

[@eucitizen78]

Wow...the mighty Helldiver 👍👍👍

[@johannmckraken9399]

I've always liked the SB2C-4 even if it wasn't terribly popular with its crews. Rather stubby looking, if Curtiss had added about two feet to the fuselage behind the wing it would have been a more graceful looking plane and might have corrected some of its poor low speed handling some. Sure nice to see one in flying condition, a rare treat.

[@scootergeorge9576]

The size was dictated by the aircraft elevators on American aircraft carriers. The Helldiver could have used the extra power of the Pratt and Whitney R-2800. The aircraft was a rather marginal one, quality wise. Most pilots preferred the Douglas SBD.

[@ovemunk]

I read somewhere that pilots during WW2 would swear that SB2C read "Son of a Bi*** 2. Class".. :-D -but it is a very very nice restauration and an impressive aeroplane to watch.

[@thethirdman225]

Yeah, right on. Without taking anything away from those who operated and maintained it, the Helldiver was described by one VF-17 pilot as having more bugs than an oriental flophouse.

[@RedArrow73]

Wonder how many got turned into VIP trasnsports?

[@horsemoney]

Thanks! I try, but I'm short, only 5'1" and sometimes it hard to shoot video over all the people around me at airshows, and WWII Weekend has a tall fence on top of that, but I keep trying...LOL Julie : )

[@spreadeagled5654]

Big Tailed BEAST ! 🇺🇸. I love this bird ! 👍👏🇺🇸

[@craigpennington1251]

This craft has a short T/O run for a large size and weight. I really do believe over all performance would improve with a bigger prop. Say 6" more in length per blade and 3" wider. All made of lighter material of course.

[@pauloalves6664]

The Portuguese Naval Air Arm received 24 of these from MDAP in 1950 to form an anti sub unit, in was our most modern airplane not counting the F-47 Thunderbolt of the Army Air Force, in 1952 with the creation of the Portuguese Air Force it went to this service, sadly not one bit of it was preserved. It was prematurely taken out of service in 1956 , to be substituted by the PV-2 Harpoon which fought in the war in Angola from 1961 to 1974 in a Coin environment. The Helldiver could have soldiered to the 60s. Mr Kennedy arms embargo to Portugal made us figth against communist african movements with WW2 vintage aircraft.

[@davidwheeler8619]

Would have been fun to watch 'em go up to 20,000 ft and come down in that 70 deg. dive down to 1,500 ft and pull out...in a big hurry! These old warbirds are great!

[@allgood6760]

Nice!.. give the enemy Hell👍✈️

[@ゆうゆう-l4x]

一番大好きな機体です。 頭上を通過する瞬間の姿がとても美しい^ ^

[@NoTaboos]

It's a dive bomber, so why not do a DIVE demo? Gutless.

[@majorbubbie2626]

Hey we just had this plane come into our fbo. I shot a up close video that's on my page if you wanna check it out. Beautiful bird

[@arielcampagnola1328]

👍👍👍🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

[@craigpennington1251]

Too bad these guys can't do a dive from 12,000' to really show it off.

[@chpman2013]

Considering how antique it is, that would be almost suicidal...

[@craigpennington1251]

@@chpman2013 No, not treally. That aircraft must be airworthy to the precise specification before being able to fly. Question is - has anyone have the balls to carry it out? And if so, will the gov. let it happen?

[@chpman2013]

@@craigpennington1251 well, when you pull out of a dive from that altitude, you're gonna be pulling at least 8 or 9 G's. The pilot might be able to take that, but the question is will the plane be able to without receiving an excessive amount of stress?

[@craigpennington1251]

@@chpman2013 Very possible.

[@rjminar1980]

@@chpman2013 The Helldiver crews would perform a split-s over the target, enter a dive angle of 78 degrees and reach a maximum speed of 350 knots, though 300 knots as probability more realistic with all the drag they’d create. After weapon release they would pull out of the dive, close the bomb bay, and set the controls. During the whole maneuver the aircrew would see maximum g forces of 5/6 g’s, unless of course something went wrong. The average WW2 pilot, worth out access to modern g-suites or high g training, would generally experience g-loc at around 6/7 g’s for 10 to 20 seconds.

[@veinbanger9381]

Son of a Bitch, 2and class. I wish I could have operated this back in WW2, but it might have been difficult since I'm African American, but that wouldn't have stopped me. I wonder why is the handling hated by the crew?

[@veinbanger9381]

Son of a Bitch, second class!