Talk:Curtiss SOC Seagull

O3C
I understand this aircraft also briefly carried the USN designation O3C? Drutt (talk) 01:08, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Confirmed here. That source also gives the date of first flight as March 1934 rather than January 1934. I'll change the article. Drutt (talk) 01:57, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

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Be made amphibious?
Can it be made amphibious, having both wheels and floats simultaneously?184.186.4.209 (talk) 01:38, 16 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Have no real evidence but it seems unlikely as the aircraft would need a major redesign to the large single float to add some sort of landing gear. MilborneOne (talk) 10:01, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

SOC-2 Seaplane Variants
There is strong evidence that the SOC-2 had interchangeable wheeled undercarriage and floats or was exclusively a float-equipped aircraft.

1. The Naval History and Heritage Command has published over 150 entries of Location of US Naval Aircraft in WWII, many of which mention SOC-2 aircraft as assigned to cruisers. For example, the 2 January 1945 version lists five cruisers with 1-2 SOC-2s, with the San Francisco entry noting one SOC-1, one SOC-2, and one SOC-3. Other books show similar entries with numbers varying week by week as aircraft are lost/units changed to different aircraft.

2. Joe Baugher's Bureau Number database includes data on 25 of the 40 SOC-2s (Second Series 0001 to 5029). Seventeen of these are listed as lost from specific cruisers with a data attached, including some noted as "capsized", and one (0410) lost from Independence (CVL-22), though this may have been a SOC-2A (0392 and 0415 known converted). For example, "0406 (VCS-4) attached to USS Portland, capsized at sea during recovery accident and sunk by gunfire Jul 9, 1942."

3. There are some photos of aircraft that appear to have SOC-2 on the tail and with floats clearly visible, such as this Navsource photo. However, the SOC-2 floatplane photos I have found are not great quality and I have yet to find a photo that shows SOC-2 and the bureau number clearly, which I would personally need to be sure this doesn't read "SCO-3".

Cruisers could only take float-equipped aircraft, and the capsized aircraft strongly imply floats. The floatplanes photos should be conclusive, but are not clear enough for me to be certain.

Based on this, I strongly suspect the cited sources saying the SOC-2 was a landplane only are in error. I do not have official data sheets on the aircraft at present.

This also opens the question "What was the difference between SOC-2 and SOC-3", since the cited differences are "Similar to SOC-2, but with interchangeable undercarriage." Beachedwhale1945 (talk) 15:38, 23 December 2022 (UTC)