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It's About the Journey Not Just the Destination
The Bloch MB.700 was a light-weight fighter designed for the French Air Force. It used a wooden frame, to conserve strategic materials and a 700hp Gnome-Rhône 14 M6. First flying on 19 April 1940, it subsequently undertook a series of evaluation flights. When German forces occupied the airfield it was based at, they burned it. A second partially built aircraft was never completed.
The Douglas XSB2D-1 Destroyer was designed as a replacement for both the Douglas SBD Dauntless and the new Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. It was fitted with a bomb bay and underwing racks for up to 4,200 lb (1,900 kg) of bombs or one torpedo (typically the Mark 13), while defensive armament consisted of two wing-mounted 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon and two remote-controlled turrets, each with two .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns.
Not long after its first flight on 8 April 1943, the US Navy requested torpedo bomber be developed from the XSB2D-1. This resulted in the Douglas BTD Destroyer. Only two prototypes of the XSB2D-1 were built as the production order was converted to BTD Destroyers instead.
Developed from the Douglas XSB2D-1 Destroyer as a torpedo bomber for the US Navy, the Douglas BTD Destroyer first flew on 5 March 1944. It differed from the XSB2D-1 with the removal of the turrets and second crewman, the addition of more fuel and armor and wing racks that could carry two torpedoes.
The additional weight from the modifications severely affected performance and the contract was terminated at the end of the war, with only 26 production aircraft being completed.
Two XBTD-2 prototypes were built in an attempt to increase performance with the additional Westinghouse 19B engines in rear fuselage giving 1,500 lbf (6.7 kN) thrust. This mixed propulsion with the additional turbojet did not sufficiently improve performance to warrant production.
