Curtiss XBTC


The Curtiss XBTC was an experimental single-seat, single-engine torpedo bomber aircraft developed during World War II.

Design and development

The Curtiss XBTC-1 was a low-wing monoplane with retractable tailwheel landing gear which was powered by a 2,200 hp Wright R-3350 radial engine. It was entered in a 1943 United States Navy competition against the Douglas XBT2D-1, Martin XBTM-1 Mauler, and Kaiser-Fleetwings XBTK-1. The BTC-2, powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engine, was given a higher priority due to problems with the Wright engine, but despite its power and "first-class performance and weapon-carrying capacity", it lost the competition to the XBT2D-1 and the BTM-1 Mauler, which had already been built.
Two XBTC-2s were built, each having a different wing. The "Model A" had a standard wing and flaps; the "Model B" featured a full-span Duplex flap wing with a straight trailing edge and a swept-back leading edge. Both had the 3,000 hp Pratt & Whitney XR-4360-8A equipped with contra-rotating propellers. The planes were delivered to the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, in July 1946. One plane crashed in February 1947, the other in August 1947.
The United States Army Air Forces assigned the designation A-40 to a proposed 'de-navalized' version of the XBTC; however, the USAAF decided not to acquire any further single-engine attack aircraft and the project was cancelled.

Variants