The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver was supposed to be America’s next great dive bomber—but it was so flawed it needed more than 800 design changes. Pilots loathed it, crews feared it, and yet it still went to ...

The Pacific’s greatest dive bombers were not all equal, and each carried its own strengths, flaws, and battlefield legacy.

Click to open image viewer. During World War II, U.S. Navy bombing squadrons flew Helldiver dive-bombers against Japan from November 1943 to the war’s end in September 1945. After a prolonged ...

Between 1943 and 1945, over 7,000 SB2C Helldivers were built. Initially, the aircraft displayed poor handling characteristics—earning a damning report from the waste-focused Truman Committee and the ...

Docent Ashby Taylor tells the story behind the World War II SB2C Helldiver dive bomber inside WestPac Restorations while giving a tour Wednesday, July 24, 2025, at the National World War II Aviation ...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A rare World War II Navy dive bomber that was stripped, burned and dumped in Lake Washington during the 1940s returned to the skies July 19 after a decades-long journey from ...

Editor’s Note: A Good Thunder farm boy and pilot Ensign Jack Carl Fuller died 80 years ago Monday in one of the key battles to the U.S. winning World War II in the Pacific Theater. Research by his ...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A rare World War II Navy dive bomber that was stripped, burned and dumped in Lake Washington during the 1940s returned to the skies July 19 after a decades-long journey from ...