Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf

TBY Sea Wolf
Role	Torpedo bomber
Manufacturer	Consolidated Aircraft
Designer	Vought
First flight	22 December 1941
Introduction	1944
Status	Retired
Primary user	United States Navy
Number built	180

The Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf was a United States Navy torpedo bomber of World War II. A competitor and contemporary to the very similar Grumman TBF Avenger, the Sea Wolf was subject to substantial delays and never saw combat; only 180 of the type were built before cancellation after VJ Day.

Design and development

The original design was not by Consolidated Aircraft, but rather by Vought, who designed the then XTBU-1 Sea Wolf to a 1939 US Navy requirement. The first prototype flew two weeks after Pearl Harbor. Its performance deemed superior to the Avenger and the Navy placed an order for a 1,000 examples.

Several unfortunate incidents intervened; the prototype was damaged in a rough arrested landing trial, and when repaired a month later was again damaged in a collision with a training aircraft. Once repaired again, the prototype was accepted by the Navy. However, by this time Vought was heavily over-committed to other contracts, especially for the F4U Corsair fighter, and had no production capacity. It was arranged that Consolidated-Vultee would produce the aircraft (as the TBY), but this had to wait until the new production facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania was complete, which took until late 1943.

Operational history

The production TBYs were radar-equipped, with a radome under the right-hand wing. The first one flew on 20 August 1944. By this time, though, the Avenger equipped every torpedo squadron in the Navy, and there was not really any place for the Sea Wolf; in addition, numerous small problems delayed things. The Sea Wolf had seen no action by the Japanese surrender, after which all orders were cancelled.

Specifications (TBY Sea Wolf)

General characteristics

• Crew: 3
• Length: 39 ft 2 in (11.95 m)
• Wingspan: 56 ft 11 in (17.35 m)
• Height: 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
• Wing area: 440 ft² (40.88 m²)
• Empty weight: 11,366 lb (5,142 kg)
• Max. takeoff weight: 18,448 lb (8,386 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-2800-6 Double Wasp radial engine, 2,000 hp (1,491 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 306 mph (492 km/h)
• Range: 1,500 mi (2,414 km)
• Service ceiling: 27,200 ft (8,290 m)

Armament

• 1 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine gun in cowling
• 2 × .50 in machine gun in the wings
• 1 × .50 in machine gun in dorsal turret
• 1 × .30 in (7.62 mm) M1919 Browning machine gun in ventral mount
• Up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs or one torpedo

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Douglas TBD Devastator
• Douglas XTB2D Skypirate
• Fairey Barracuda
• Grumman TBF Avenger
  

Related lists

• List of aircraft of World War II
• List of military aircraft of the United States (naval)
  

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Ginter, Steve, Bill Chana and Phil Prophett. Vought XTBU-1 & TBY-2 Sea Wolf (Naval Fighters number Thirty-Three). Simi Valley, CA: Ginter Books, 1995 . ISBN 0-942612-33-7.

External links

• TBY Seawolf at Brown Shoe Navy
• TBY Seawolf at Dave's Warbirds
• AirToAirCombat.Com: Vought TBU-1 Sea Wolf