[Llarry]

I've told the story of the Vought F4U Corsair carrier fighter before: It was meant to be the replacement for the Grumman F4F Wildcat but handling difficulties kept it off carrier decks for a couple of years during World War II -- to the great benefit of the Marines, who loved it and amassed a great combat record with their F4Us.

There was a parallel story in the dive bomber category. The Douglas SBD Dauntless was to be replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, but the SB2C had a difficult gestation. One problem was that it was a much larger airplane that its predecessor SBD, but still had to fit onto the same aircraft carrier elevators. For that reason, it was a little shorter than optimum and had a little less tail than optimum. It was also a more complex machine, with fewer manual and more automated systems. It took a while to iron the bugs out of the SB2C (also produced as the SBF and SBW) and gain acceptance in the fleet. In mid-1944 during the last great carrier battle in the Marianas -- known by the U.S. Navy as the Marianas Turkey Shoot -- many SB2Cs were lost to fuel exhaustion. A tragedy, but with a silver lining; the lost early model SB2Cs were quickly replaced with improved SB2C-3 and -4 models. They never won the affection of their crews like the SBD but they were more capable: They could carry more/bigger bombs and even could carry a torpedo in a pinch. The late model SB2C-5s served in the fleet until replaced by AD Skyraiders well after the war.