#douglas dauntless

Salute the Brave: US Navy Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber, piloted by Lt. George Glacken, Navy Cross USNR with his gunner, Aviation Radioman 2nd Class, Leo Boulanger DFC. VB-16 Maritime Patrol Sqn.

Douglas dauntless free#

This detail was developed on the BT-1 after serious tail buffeting was experienced while diving. The hydraulically actuated perforated split-flaps and dive-brakes were the most distinctive feature of the Dauntless. The gunner did not have control over the landing gear or tail hook, but he had just enough control that he could return to the carrier and ditch nearby. The rear cockpit control stick could be unclipped from the left cockpit sidewall and inserted into a socket in the floor. It had a two-man tandem cockpit with emergency flight controls for the rear gunner. The configuration of the Dauntless was a three spar, low-wing, cantilever monoplane of all-metal construction, except for the fabric covered flight controls. 2 The new model XBT-2, became the forerunner of the now well known Dauntless. 1 On November 28, 1937, numerous major modifications were ordered on the BT-1, one of which was the landing gear being changed from retracting backwards into large fairing trousers beneath the wings, to folding laterally into recessed wheel wells. Northrop was dissolved on Septemand Northrop designs continued production under Douglas. The airplane originated with the design of the Northrop BT-1, powered by a 700 hp Pratt & Whittney R-1535-64 Twin Wasp Junior engine, when the Northrop Corporation was a subsidiary of The Douglas Aircraft Corporation. The French Navy Dauntlesses were the last ones to see combat and were used against the Viet Minh, in French Indochina flying from the French carrier Arromanches (ex-HMS Colossus).

Douglas dauntless free#

It also flew for the Free French as trainers and close-support aircraft in 1944. During the war, the Royal New Zealand Air Force received the Dauntless and were flown by No. It served during WWII with the US Navy, US Marines and US Army air squadrons. Despite being slow and low-tech, it would change the course of the Naval Pacific war. Its capacity to absorb battle damage made it a rugged adversary and is one of aviation history's classic warplanes.ĭesigned as a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, by designer Ed Heinemann who worked for Jack Northrop, the Dauntless SBD (Scout Bomber Douglas) was one of the 35 US aircraft types that engaged in the major battles of WW II. The Dauntless first entered service in mid-1939 and distinguished itself in the Battle of Midway against Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu.