Consolidated XB2Y

The Consolidated XB2Y was an American prototype single-engined dive bomber of the 1930s, company Model 24, built to a 1932 Navy specification for a two-seat carrier-based dive bomber able to carry a 1,000 lb bomb. It was a single-bay biplane developed from a basic design by the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, with detailed design led by B Douglas Thomas, formerly chief designer of Thomas-Morse. Much of the center section was cut from a solid steel block to withstand pull-out loads, and it used a Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior radial engine, a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and a bomb crutch that swung the bomb clear of the propeller. The prototype was completed in 1933 but performed poorly and was costly, so the Navy chose the Great Lakes design. Only one was built, later converted to a scout and used by NACA for pilot view tests.