Curtiss XBT2C-1 No 3 in flight c1945

A U.S. Navy Curtiss XBT2C-1 in flight. This is probably the 3rd XBT2C-1 built, BuNo 50881. Though similar in appearance to its XBTC predecessor, the ten XBT2C-1 aircraft featured a smaller 2,000 hp Wright R-3350-24 engine with a standard propeller and a place for a second crewman in the fuselage. Additionally, the aircraft was equipped with an internal bomb bay, giving it the capability of carrying up to 1,800 kg of ordnance. Ordered on 27 March 1945, well after the XBTC, the XBT2C nevertheless flew before its predecessor. Only nine of the ten examples of the aircraft ordered by the Navy were actually delivered, the last appearing in October 1946.