[Llarry]

Yet another U.S. naval aviation might-have-been was the Vought XTBU-1 prototype torpedo bomber (a competitor to the Grumman/Eastern TBF/TBM Avenger) and its production development, the Consolidated TBY-2 Sea Wolf.

At the same time that Vought was working on their advanced F4U Corsair carrier fighter -- that would prove to be an excellent aircraft after a somewhat troubled development process -- they were also designing and building a prototype torpedo bomber to replace the Douglas TBD-1. The Vought XTBU-1 was given Pratt & Whitney R-2800 power. The competitor Grumman XTBF-1 Avenger, which lagged slightly behind in development, had to do with a less powerful Wright R-2600 of 1700 horsepower. The Vought entry was estimated to have a 50 mile per hour advantage in speed over the Grumman -- a major advantage.

The problem was that all these manufacturers were gearing up for very high rates of production. For instance, the Avenger ended up being largely manufactured in General Motors' Eastern Aircraft factories (as the TBM Avenger), as did the Grumman F4F Wildcat (as the FM Wildcat). This allowed Grumman to concentrate on rapid production of the F6F Hellcat in 1942-45. Similarly, the Navy wanted Vought to stress production of the F4U Corsair.

Production of the Vought torpedo bomber was thus farmed out to a former Mack truck factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that was taken over by a new branch of Consolidated Aircraft. I'm sure the problems encountered in Allentown were not unique to that plant, but asking motor vehicle workers to manufacture parts to aircraft tolerances was challenging to say the least. It ended up taking quite a while -- over two years -- to get the plant up and turning out TBY-2 torpedo bombers for the Navy.

The result was that only 180 Consolidated TBY-2 Sea Wolfs were built in Allentown before the end of the war shut down all production. By comparison, Grumman managed to build almost 2,000 TBF Avengers in 1942-43 before turning production over to Eastern -- Eastern in turn built almost 8,000 Avengers before the end of the war. 9,836 Avengers of all types were produced. It's easy to see why the TBF and TBM were the standard Navy torpedo bomber -- and provided years of service after the war in various roles. Another 50 miles per hour of speed would have been desirable, but not at the cost in time that the Navy would have to pay.

Just a single torpedo squadron equipped with TBY-2s in 1945 and they shortly thereafter transitioned to TBM-3s. Many of the 180 TBY-2s were scrapped with very few hours of flight recorded.

Photos:
1) The Vought prototype
2) and 3) The Consolidated production TBY-2
4) The winner