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Aircraft-dropped antiship torpedoes were deemed to have great potential in the early days of naval aviation, but with the end of World War II came the end of torpedo attacks against surface ships. The 1930s Douglas TBD Devastator -- the first USN monoplane torpedo bomber -- faced disaster in the early 1942 battles, but Grumman and Vought both flew prototype torpedo bombers in late 1941. Grumman's design -- the TBF Avenger -- became one of the mainstays of carrier aviation through the war and into the 1950s, albeit in carrier-based ASW, AEW or COD form. Grumman turned production of the Avenger over to GM's Eastern Aircraft (as the TBM) to concentrate on fighter production.
Vought's XTBU-1 Sea Wolf had superior power from a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 which gave it better performance than the TBF. Like Grumman, Vought turned over production in order to concentrate on F4U Corsair fighter production. A 50 mph speed advantage over the TBF prompted the Navy to place an order for 1,000 aircraft in 1942. Production was turned over to Consolidated-Vultee at a converted Mack truck factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania as the TBY.
In contrast to the TBF, the TBY suffered delay after delay, and it was August of 1944 before the first TBY-2 flew. Production of 180 TBY-2s continued into 1945 before the Sea Wolf was cancelled due to the pending end of hostilities. Most production aircraft went to NAS Quonset Point RI and the only TorpRon to be assigned TBY-2s was VT-154, which was redesignated VT-155 in August 1945. When the war ended, the TBYs were withdrawn from squadron use. Shortly thereafter they were scrapped.