On this day in aviation history, December 18, 1940, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bomber made its first flight. Plagued ...

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver would have been the U.S. Navy’s frontline carrier-based dive bomber for much of World War II, but problems with its development delayed its introduction and saddled it ...

The Curtiss SB2C-4 Helldiver recently transferred to the USS Midway Museum was originally accepted into the US Navy’s inventory on July 25, 1944, and delivered two days later on July 27 under ...

Between 1943 and 1945, over 7,000 SB2C Helldivers were built ... and the ire of pilots and aircraft commanders alike. The Helldiver was much larger than the Dauntless, and improved, in theory ...

The SB2C made her maiden flight on December 18 ... 50 caliber machine guns in pods installed on underwing hardpoints. In any event, the Helldiver was faster – by a differential of 40 mph ...

The Curtiss-built SB2C-5 Helldiver aircraft, BuNo 83393, was originally built in early 1945 and was delivered to Naval Air Field Newport, Rhode Island. Very shortly after it was transferred to ...

The SB2C Helldiver was dislodged from the reservoir floor Friday and brought to the surface after divers spent two days in zero-visibility water removing mud and debris that was holding the plane ...

Divers have secured lines and inflated air bladders to the main frame of the World War II SB2C-4 Helldiver bomber, and it’s nearly ready to be raised. The process was delayed midway through the ...

U.S. Navy divers are currently spending the week off the coast of Florida investigating quite an unusual find: A Curtiss SB2C Helldiver lying upside down approximately 185 feet below the water’s ...

George "Art" Plumador, 91, of Malone, N.Y., examines the restored Curtiss SB2C Helldiver he flew in during World War II at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy ...

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver could have been the U.S. Navy’s frontline carrier-based dive bomber for much of World War II, but problems with its development delayed its introduction and saddled it ...