AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was beginning to think it wasn't as easy as I thought. Time to go over the clues:
1) This plane was one of the first of it's kind The Helldiver was one of the first planes designed from the beginning as a dive bomber
2) This plane was powered by a single engine The engine was a P&W R-1535-82 Twin Wasp Jr
3) This plane had a crew of two The crew consisted of a pilot and radio operator/gunner
4) This plane had a design feature used by only one other manufacturer The landing gear was of a design very similar to the Grumman FF-1 through F4F Wildcat, retracting flush with the sides of the fuse forward of the wing
5) While this plane was around during a war, it was never used in combat The Helldiver was made operational in 1937 with "Scouting 5", based on the USS Yorktown(CV-5), but was not used in combat. It was relegated to training status just prior to the start of WWII
6) This plane was designed to replace a previously designed, but not accepted, aircraft that had a parasol wing arrangement The Curtis model 73 was designed as a fighter-bomber but was not able to handle the stress of pulling out of a dive
7) This plane was only purchased by the country of manufacture and two of their allies. One of the ally's planes never flew, after being received, and actually corroded to the point of being junk Great Britain bought a few that were used for training. France ordered 90, 50 of which went to the carrier Bearn. After the fall of France, the Bearn sailed to Martinique where, due to the tropical environment, the planes corroded to the point of being unflyable
8) This plane shared it's name with another successful aircraft that was built roughly five years later The name "Helldiver" was passed on the the 1940 design SB2C, a plane that became famous in the later stages of WWII
9) This plane was originally armed with two 30 caliber machine guns. One was fixed to fire forward, a second in the rear cockpit in a flexible mount
10) The country that ordered but didn't fly this plane had it armed with twin 50 caliber guns instead of the .30s The French planes also had the instrumentation replaced with European style metric guages
11) This plane was replaced by another plane that became legendary due to it's performance, durability and combat record That legendary plane was the "do everything" SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber
12) A contemporary plane, used in the same role as our subject aircraft that actually did see combat, was badly mauled during it's only battle This was the Vought SB2U Vindicator. What I wasn't aware of is that the Vindicator actually flew in France as part of the French Navy's air arm, flying from land bases. The plane was badly mauled by German fighters, just like in the Pacific where Japanese fighters shot them down fairly quickly
Okay Johnny, YOU'RE UP