The Curtiss XBTC was a prototype single-seat, single-engined torpedo/dive bomber developed during World War II for the United States Navy.

By this time, Curtiss Aircraft was overwhelmed with work and the Navy gave the XBTC-2 prototypes a low priority which delayed progress so the first flight did not take place until the beginning of 1945.

Wartime experience showed that pilots could aim bombs and torpedoes without assistance from other crewmembers as well as navigate with the aid of radio beacons and the development of more powerful engines meant that faster aircraft no longer needed a rear gunner for self-defense.

Curtiss responded with their Model 96 which was a low-wing monoplane with retractable conventional landing gear with the R-3350 and proposed an alternate powered by the heavier 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial that would use contra-rotating propellers to handle the extra horsepower.

The Navy agreed to both and issued a letter of intent in late June for two aircraft equipped with the R-3350, the XBTC-1 (BT reflecting its new role), and another pair fitted with the R-4360, the XBTC-2.

Due to development and production difficulties with the high-priority SB2C Helldiver dive bomber, along with the SO3C Seamew and SC Seahawk scout and observation floatplanes, the Navy only awarded a contract for the two XBTC-2 prototypes on 31 December and gave them a low priority.

It was fitted with an aileron that started at the tip and extended inwards for about 3/4s of the panel's span; the remaining space was used by ordinary slotted flaps.

[5] Development and construction of the two prototypes was delayed by the low priority given to the program by the Navy, so the aircraft did not make its first flight until 20 January 1945.

[6] The United States Army Air Forces assigned the designation A-40 to a proposed 'de-navalized' version of the XBTC; however, it later decided not to acquire any further single-engine attack aircraft and the project was cancelled.