SBD-4 Dauntless 06900 Specifications Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company, El Segundo California Type: Scout Dive Bomber, carrier and land basedĭimensions Length: 33 ft 1 in (10.08 m) Wingspan: 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m) Height: 13 ft 7 in (4.14 m) Wing area: 325 ft² (30.19 m²) Navys front line dive bomber from the outbreak of WWII thru 1943.

It is painted in the markings of VB 16, when the bomber squadron was attached to the U.S.S. The Douglas SBD Dauntless served as the U.S. It was loaned to the San Diego Aerospace Museum in 1994, and went under an extensive volunteer restoration process that took four years. It sat there for half a century until it was recovered by the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1993. THE COMMEMORATIVE AIR FORCE, AIRBASE GEORGIA. Sable for carrier training, when it sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan as a result of engine failure on June 26, 1943. TAKE THE GUNNERS SEAT ON THE HERO OF GUADALCANAL, CORAL SEA & MIDWAY. The Museum’s SBD-4 (06900), one of 780 SBD-4s built by Douglas, was attached to the U.S.S. The Douglas SBD Dauntless Changed the Course of the Second World War In a Single Day War History Online At the Battle of Midway, US forces faced an intense attack from the Japanese - that is, until the Douglas SBD Dauntless changed everything.

The SBD-4, virtually identical to the SBD-3, except for a change in the voltage of the electrical system, began to arrive in 1942. SBD-3s first arrived in the fleet in 1940. For the rest of the war, carriers were the frontline attack force in the Pacific, and battle ships were primarily used for heavy bombardment of shorelines prior to amphibious landings. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor showed the awesome effectiveness of the latter, in the most nightmarish way, and the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway drove the fact home. Douglas-SBD-Dauntless / Model Shop - Model Making - Modelling goods, scale models, plastic models, modelling tools, paints, literature. The Douglas SBD Dauntless was one of the best American Naval aircraft in the earlier years of the War in the Pacific, before more advantaged aircraft were built like the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. Its dual mission reflected a continuing debate in the 1930s within the Navy, whether the primary tactical uses of aircraft, and aircraft carriers, should be for reconnaissance or attack. Published The Dauntless was a legendary dive bomber that, in one day, contributed to one of the biggest turning points of the war. The SBD would continue to play a major role the Pacific War, sinking a total of 18 Japanese ships.ĭesigned by the esteemed Ed Heinemann, the Douglas SBD was intended to be both a scout aircraft and a dive bomber. SBD-3 Dauntless squadrons destroyed four Japanese carriers at Midway, Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu, compared to the loss of only one carrier for the U.S. In the pivotal Naval Battle of Midway in June of 1942, the Douglas SBD Dauntless turned the tide of the Pacific War in favor of the United States, and in the process helped to complete a paradigm shift in naval warfare tactics, effectively replacing battleships with carrier based air power as the primary attack force of U.S. The diving Dauntless went on to destroy 18 enemy warships, including a battleship and six carriers.Among aircraft credited with changing the tactics of naval warfare, the Douglas SBD Dauntless is perhaps the most significant. Navy in World II is credited to a Dauntless from the USS Enterprise. Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Forces, the Dauntless served air forces in New Zealand and Mexico. The SBD Dauntless featured “Swiss cheese” flaps-dive brakes punched with 3-inch holes-so that it could achieve pinpoint accuracy by diving to the target, dropping the bomb and then pulling out of the near-vertical dive. The Dauntless was developed at the Douglas Northrop facility at El Segundo, Calif., and was based on the Northrop Model 8 attack bomber developed for both the Army and the export market. Army Air Forces A-24s between 1940 and the end of production in July 1944. Douglas delivered a total of 5,936 SBDs and U.S. Navy’s World War II air fleet in the Pacific, with the lowest loss ratio of any U.S. SBD Dauntless dive bomber became a mainstay of the U.S.

Sbd dauntless