[1] There was controversy in the United States Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) in the early 1930s regarding two-seat fighter planes, monoplanes and the retractable undercarriage.

113, which detailed a requirement for a high-performance fighter with fixed undercarriage to be powered by the Wright R-1510[3] or Pratt & Whitney's R-1535 radial engine.

On 30 June 1932, BuAer signed a contract with Curtiss to design a two-seat monoplane with a parasol wing a retractable undercarriage and powered by a 625 hp (466 kW) Wright R-1510-92 fourteen cylinder, two row, air-cooled radial engine driving a two-blade propeller.

Finally, the 700 hp (520 kW) Wright R-1820-80 nine cylinder, single row, air-cooled radial engine[3] was installed and the resulting aircraft, designated XF12C-1 flew in 1933.

[8] After testing, the XF12C-1 was rejected as a fighter, and on 7 December 1933 this aircraft was redesignated in the scout category as the XS4C-1 and re-engined with a 700 hp (520 kW) Wright R-1820-80 radial engine[9] driving a two-blade propeller.

It was powered by a 700 hp (520 kW) Wright XR-1510-12 fourteen-cylinder, twin-row, air-cooled engine driving a constant speed Curtiss Electric three-blade propeller, and it featured an enlarged canopy, an enlarged vertical fin and rudder, and a retractable tail hook.

[citation needed] In March 1936, this aircraft was re-engined with a 700 hp (520 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1535-82 fourteen-cylinder, twin-row, air-cooled engine driving a three-blade propeller and redesignated XSBC-3.

The production aircraft were powered by an 825 hp (615 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1535-94 fourteen-cylinder, twin-row, air-cooled engine driving a three-blade propeller.

The 76th SBC-3 was re-engined with a 950 hp (710 kW) Wright R-1820-22 nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial engine driving a three-blade Hamilton Standard propeller and redesignated XSBC-4.

[citation needed] The contract for 124 production aircraft of the XSBC-4 was signed on 5 January 1938 and deliveries began in March 1939 to April 1941.

This aircraft was re-engined with the 750 hp (560 kW) Wright R-1820-22 nine cylinder, single row, air-cooled radial engine.

By June 1940, 11 NRABs had SBC-4s as follows: As time passed, the Navy acquired newer, more modern aircraft and the SBC-3s were replaced by the Douglas SBD Dauntless.

By 7 December 1941, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps had 69 SBC-3s and 118 SBC-4s in the inventory based at NASs, NRABs and the Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The largest number were at NAS Miami, Florida, where they were used for intermediate and dive bombing training.

A second observation squadron, VMO-155, was commissioned in American Samoa on 1 October 1942 by taking half of VMSB-151's personnel and equipment.

[18] In December 1942, the VMSB-151 SBC-4s were being replaced by Douglas SBD Dauntlesses and by June 1943, the squadron had been fully equipped with SBD-4s and moved to Uvea Island in the Wallis Group, leaving their SBC-4s behind.

Houlton Airport, Maine, was on the Canada–US border and local farmers used their tractors to tow the planes into New Brunswick, Canada, where the Canadians closed the Woodstock highway so that aircraft could use it as a runway and fly to RCAF Station Dartmouth.

One of the first groups that left encountered rain and fog while flying between Buffalo and Albany, New York, and one of the aircraft crashed.

The remaining 49 aircraft were successfully flown to Nova Scotia to be loaded onto Béarn and the light cruiser Jeanne d'Arc.

Two days later, Brest fell into German hands and both ships were ordered to Fort-de-France, Martinique, French West Indies, an island in the Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean Sea.

Under tropical climatic conditions, the aircraft stored in the open were slowly rotting and were no longer airworthy and were eventually scrapped.

[citation needed] Five of the French aircraft could not fit on FR Béarn and were left at RCAF Station Dartmouth.