The Vought XSB3U was an American biplane scout bomber developed by Vought-Sikorsky for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during the 1930s. Developed as an alternative to the

SB2U Vindicator The Vought SB2U Vindicator is an American carrier-based dive bomber developed for the United States Navy in the 1930s, the first monoplane in this role. Vindicators still remained in service at the time of the Battle of Midway, but by 1943, all h ...

monoplane, the aircraft proved unsatisfactory to the Navy in comparison, and development was not pursued.

Design and development

In late 1934, the U.S. Navy's

Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for naval aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (''i.e.'', responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of naval aircraft and relate ...

(BuAer) issued a specification for new scout bomber and

torpedo bomber A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...

designs.Dann 1996, p.20. Eight companies submitted ten designs in response, evenly split between

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

s and biplanes.Doll 1992, p.4. Exemplifying the

' reluctance to fully embrace the monoplane configuration for carrier-based aircraft,Johnson 2008, p.309. the XSB3U-1 was proposed as a more conventional alternative to Vought's XSB2U-1, which was designed as a modern monoplane. The XSB3U was modified from the last production

SBU Corsair The Vought SBU-1 Corsair was a two-seat, all-metal biplane dive bomber built by Vought Aircraft Company of Dallas, Texas for the US Navy. Its design was based upon the F3U-1 two-seat Fighter aircraft, fighter that was abandoned when the Navy deci ...

, using essentially the same airframe, including a fully enclosed cockpit, and

Pratt & Whitney R-1535 The Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior was an engine used in American aircraft in the 1930s. The engine was introduced in 1932 as a 14-cylinder version of the 9-cylinder R-985. It was a two-row, air-cooled radial design. Displacement was ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...

, but with a more streamlined surface and cowling. In addition, the XSB3U had fully retractable landing gear.

Operational history

The XSB3U-1 was delivered to

Naval Air Station Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is na ...

for evaluation by the U.S. Navy in April 1936;, at the same time as its primary competitor, the XSB2U-1. Comparative testing of the two aircraft during 1936 proved the complete superiority of the monoplane configuration;Donald 1997, p.902. on the same power, the SB2U-1 was faster despite being larger and heavier than the biplane. However, the Navy was impressed by the XSB3U's method of landing gear retraction, which provided a more streamlined surface after retraction than most other methods used at the time.Doll 1992, p.5. Following the end of the evaluation, the XSB3U was retained by the Navy, and used for experimental and

liaison Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together. Liaison or liaisons may refer to: General usage * Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship * Collaboration * Co-operation Arts and entertainment * Li ...

purposes by the Navy, also being used by

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...

Langley Field Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfo ...

for testing of tail loads starting in August 1938, continuing through January 1939 when the aircraft was returned to the Navy, being retired shortly thereafter.Hansen 1987, p.491.ID # EL-2000-00189
NASA Langley Research Center - Multimedia Repository. Accessed 2011-01-18.

Operators

; *

Specifications (XSB3U-1)

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * *

External links