Interesting progeny, if you will, thanks for this. SBD was a favorite of a lot of pilots. Dad carrier-qualed on it. This is cool to see. Appreciate your getting it together like this for us (...especially me, lol).
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Interesting progeny, if you will, thanks for this. SBD was a favorite of a lot of pilots. Dad carrier-qualed on it. This is cool to see. Appreciate your getting it together like this for us (...especially me, lol).Neither was the SBD if we take things a bit too far
Northrop BT-1
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Northrop XBT-1
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Northrop XBT-2
Northrop "merged/was bought out" by Douglas and the plane was redesignated the SBD.
And, of course, the T-6/SNJs, amongst others.The USAAF operated several USN types:
OA-10 (PBY)
A-25 (SB2C)
OA-14 (J4F)
OA-9 (JRF)
And of course, the afore-mentioned A-24 (SBD)
Agreed, but it's interesting that Grumman was so behind the times. The French carrier fighter was folding in the 1930s, as were the RN's two twin seat fighter (Skua and Fulmar) by 1940, even the folding reticent IJN had wing tip folds on their Zeros from its beginning in 1940.Better one Wildcat than two Dewoitine 373/6!
Really? For starters, does the US really have to care about foreign patents? Grumman had one customer in mind, the USN. But a simple vertical fold like on most non-Grumman carrier aircraft can't possibly be patentable, everyone was doing it. If Grumman had wanted folding wings from the onset there were simpler options, as well they knew.Add to that, typical folding wing configurations in use were all patented and required licensing.
Perhaps that was Grumman's game, hoping that other manufacturers would license their STO-Wing on their own designs? But only the Wildcat, Hellcat and TBF Avenger used it, with Grumman abandoning it for the Bearcat, Tigercat, etc. Do the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound use it today?Handly-Page made a fortune from licensing their leading-edge slat to other aircraft manufacturers, btw.
It was a thing of beauty to watch as well. Meanwhile look how many chaps are needed to fold a Seafire.The sto-wing design was unique in that it used a pivot at the wing-root that enables the wings to rotate and fold back similar to that of a bird.
Really? For starters, does the US really have to care about foreign patents?
Can you define the "traditional" period? Up to the late 1930s very few carrier aircraft folded their wings upwards, but instead folding wings went backwards, sometimes rotating to vertical as they went backwards, like this Skua, or just straight back like this US Navy Curtiss SOC-1 Seagull.Traditional folding wings to that point saw wings simply folding upward...