A capable loadout built on a troubled airframe

The SB2C-4 combined a 1,900-horsepower Wright R-2600 engine and four-bladed propeller with a substantial mix of bombs, a Mark 13 torpedo, eight five-inch rockets, wing cannon, rear guns, and optional gun pods. Adding weapons shortened its range and made the controls, maneuvering, and takeoff feel heavier, although the Helldiver remained a capable weapons carrier within its design limits. Poor low-speed handling, directional instability, bad stall characteristics, and structural weakness created serious risks in carrier operations and dive bombing. MIT wind-tunnel work had already raised concerns about the small vertical tail. The prototype later crashed after an engine failure, was rebuilt with larger flying surfaces and an autopilot, and was destroyed when its wing failed during dive testing in December 1941. Even so, the Navy had ordered large-scale production in November 1940 before proper flight testing began, turning each later correction into a production problem.