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Vought SB2U Vindicator

1937 BATTLE OF MIDWAY PEARL HARBOR WORLD WAR 2

Walter SB2U Vindicator History

The Vought SB2U Vindicator became the first monoplane dive bomber adopted by the U.S. Navy when it first entered service in 1937 - marking a "changing of the guard" for the outgoing biplane type. Although the maintainer had a more advanced design, the aircraft itself was considered obsolete in 1942 when the United States was involved in World War II (1939-1945), so the Vought product was not used on the front lines until 1943, when it was downgraded For training squadrons.

A total of about 260 prototypes of this type were built for the US Navy, US Marine Corps (USMC), French Navy and British Royal Navy (Fleet Aviation).

The Defender was born out of a 1934 U.S. Navy request for a new carrier-based bomb delivery platform in mono- or bi-plane form - if more advanced monoplane products could not be developed, the latter would be available failsafe. Water's submission, which became "XSB2U-1" (XSB3U was a biplane prototype), competed with competing submissions from Brewster, Curtis, Great Lakes Aircraft, Grumman and Northrop, Brewster, Curtis , Northrop, and Water were awarded production contracts.

The Brewster model became the Navy Aircraft Factory SBN, and the Curtiss model became the legendary "Helldiver." Northrop's design evolved into the Northrop BT.

The Vought XSB2U-1 product used the traditional monoplane layout of the time, with a tubular fuselage (accommodating a long cockpit under a greenhouse-like canopy), a low-mounted metal main aircraft, and a tail consisting of a single aircraft, large area, vertical stabilizer with low tail. Power is provided by a Pratt & Whitney R1535 "Twin Wasp Junior" driving a two-blade fixed speed propeller. The crew consisted of two people sitting back-to-back with the pilot in front and the rear gunner in the back. The landing gear is typical of that period, with two single-wheeled main legs (retractable) under the main wing and a tail wheel at the rear (the tail wheel is not retractable). The main armament was only one M1919 .30 caliber Browning machine gun on the right flank and a similar arrangement in the rear gunner's flexible mount.

The bomb load was limited to a single 500-pound or 1,000-pound bomb below the centerline of the hull.

The XSB2U-1 prototype was ordered on October 15, 1934, and the first flight was recorded on January 4, 1936. In July of the same year, the design was formally accepted for testing by the U.S. Navy, and the prototype crashed the following month. Nonetheless, continued evaluation revealed a promising design, and the aircraft was adopted by the U.S.

Navy in 1937 as the SB2U Vindicator.

From late 1937 to the fall of 1942, the Vindicator was stowed by several U.S. aircraft carrier formations and provided supplies when the United States entered the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The U.S. Marine Corps began forming additional defender squadrons in March 1941, some of which participated in the pivotal "Battle of Midway" in June 1942leading to a decisive American victory. While providing much-needed service at the nation's most critical time, many pilots have mixed opinions about their vindicator mounts.

To this end, maintainers were eventually eliminated from front-line service as newer and better dive bombers were developed.

Maintainer service during WWII did not end with the Americans, as the type was also adopted by the French and British navies (with the appropriate equipment installed to meet local requirements). The French mounts were operated by the carrier Bern as a trainer, but were not used for the final defense of France due to the age of the carrier.

During the German invasion, French vindicators fought on land bases, and many were killed in battle.

The Royal Navy took over the stockpile of vindicators destined for France until their strait neighbours were occupied by Germany. Desperate for any war material, the British used vindicators called "Chesapeakes" and installed British-centric equipment for better standardization, including additional machine guns (4 x .30 caliber instead of the single 8mm French Dahn). and better armor protection.

British vindicators entered service in 1941, but were soon seen due to their strength limitations, which resulted in a rather short lifespan. The guy became a coach again until he finally retired.

There are several major brands in the Vindicator series, starting with the XSB2U-1 prototype and its R-1535-78 production 750 hp engine. Only one prototype was completed before the arrival of the SB2U-1 production model, powered by an 825 hp R-1535-86 engine. A total of 54 units were produced. Then there's the SB2U-2, which is more or less a slightly modified (mostly trimmed) form of the SB2U-1, with 58 more.

These are powered by an R-1535-96 "Twin Wasp Junior" radial piston engine producing 825 horsepower and can reach speeds of 250 mph for a range of up to 630 miles.

The XSB2U-3 is a "one-shot" prototype based on the SB2U-1 with the addition of floating point numbers. The SB2U-3 followed the SB2U-2, but fitted with an R-1535-102 series engine, additional armor protection and 2 x 0.50 caliber heavy machine guns (also on the right wing and rear flexible mount).

The brand produced about 57 examples in total. The French Navy's export model - number 40 - was designated V-156F-3. British export code SB2U-3 changed to V-156B-1 (Chesapeake Mk. I). These were equipped with a 750 hp R-1535-SB4-G engine and 50 examples of this type were produced.