Curtiss XSB3C

The Curtiss XSB3C was a proposed dive bomber that Curtiss-Wright designed as an enlarged and improved successor to its own SB2C Helldiver, in answer to a United States Navy request for proposals issued on 3 February 1941. It would have had a larger tail, a revised wing planform, tricycle landing gear and heavier armament, with an internal bomb bay for up to 4,000 pounds of bombs or two torpedoes and a Wright R-3350 radial engine of 2,500 horsepower. The Navy ordered two prototypes after inspecting the mockup in December 1941, but during 1942 the design was judged inferior to the competing Douglas XSB2D, and its need for 115/145 octane fuel was considered hard to handle aboard ship. The prototype contract was cancelled and no XSB3C was ever built.