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Skip to content. Our Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia has reopened. Get free timed entry passes. The Museum in DC will remain closed. It played a major role throughout the Pacific. Marine Corps units. This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage. Subsequent models were sent to Navy squadrons, with each succeeding model carrying Douglas SBD Dauntless improvements Douglas SBD Dauntless increased fuel capacity, illuminated gunsights, and armor plates for the crew. The SBD-6 was the last production model, with built. Although considered obsolete and scheduled for replacement before the war began, the SBD would live up to the nickname given to it by its crews - Slow But Deadly a play on its official designation. Serving throughout the war, Dauntlesses would sink more thantons of enemy shipping, including at least 18 warships, ranging from submarines to battleships. DuringSBDs were the primary weapon in the U. Navy experience with dive bombing went back to the early years of naval aviation. United States Marine Corps pilots had experimented with the technique as early as although it was not known by that name at the time. With the commissioning of the first carrier, the USS Langley, the Navy realized there would be limitations to the size of aircraft used at sea. Carrier planes could not hope to carry the same bomb load as shore-based aircraft, so they needed to be able to deliver each bomb as accurately as possible. Dive bombing was the answer. The technique gained official status in when the Navy included it in the fleet exercises. Accidents involving the bomb hitting the propeller or wheels on release, however, nearly ended its use. A solution was found in a bomb fork, which swung the bomb clear of the propeller arc. Approval followed in In Douglas SBD Dauntless Bureau of Aeronautics held a design competition for a new generation of carrier aircraft. The Navy wished to replace its four main types - fighter, scout-bomber, torpedo bomber, and dive bomber - with modern all-metal monoplane aircraft. Designs by Vought, Brewster, and Northrop were chosen for further development in the dive bomber category. Brewster lacked the facilities to meet the Navy's needs and the Douglas SBD Dauntless design did not have the necessary performance, although 50 would later be ordered as the SB2U Vindicator. The Northrop entry bore a family Douglas SBD Dauntless to the firm's Alpha series of mailplane aircraft. Chief engineer Ed Heinemann's racy low-wing monoplane design incorporated many of the Douglas SBD Dauntless construction techniques used in the earlier aircraft. Unlike the Vought entry, the XBT-1 as the Northrop aircraft was designatedin an effort to save weight, did not include folding wings. Split dive flaps on the trailing edge of the wing, which were perforated, eliminated tail buffeting and permitted a steeper diving angle. The Navy approved the design and ordered 54 production models designated as BT-1s. A second prototype, the XBT-2, incorporated the new 1, horsepower Wright R engine, which boosted the BT-1's top speed of mph by 35 Douglas SBD Dauntless. The addition of a modified rudder corrected poor lateral stability. A fully retractable landing gear was also included on the new prototype. The new design featured improved stability and low-speed control. Many Northrop employees, including engineer Ed Heinemann, moved over with the project, and inNorthrop sold his El Segundo, California factory to Douglas. Although the Navy had placed an order, it did not consider the SBD-1 to be fully combat-ready. The main problem was a lack of fuel capacity, which limited the range of the Dauntless. With the amount of time spent forming up and landing on a carrier, fuel capacity was considered to be critical. Douglas agreed to address the problem, beginning with the 58th production model. The Navy agreed to accept the first 57 SBD-1s without modification and decided that the Marines, who mostly operated from land bases, could use these aircraft. The Marines, therefore, received the first Dauntlesses in June of The remaining 87 aircraft of the original contract were delivered as SBD-2s. While the modifications of this version did not solve all the problems, they Douglas SBD Dauntless improve on the lack of range. In this model, the two small gallon auxiliary fuel tanks located in Douglas SBD Dauntless wing center section of the SBD-1 were replaced with two gallon tanks in the outer wings. Fuel capacity was increased from to gallons and range increased to 1, miles. The SBD-2 also had an autopilot for the long Douglas SBD Dauntless flights that were now possible. The increased weight, however, hurt performance and often one of the two. The initial two models of the Dauntless would see the first combat in the Pacific on 7 Decemberduring the attack on Pearl Harbor. Seven Dauntlesses were shot down or crash-landed. Two Japanese aircraft were claimed shot down by the Dauntlesses. As began, it was obvious that any retaliation for Pearl Harbor would have to come from the carrier forces, which had been at sea during the attack and had therefore avoided destruction. The first action took the form of hit-and-run raids by the carriers Enterprise, Lexington, and Yorktown, against remote Japanese positions in the spring of While these raids caused little damage, they served notice that the U. Navy was still fighting. Dauntlesses were heavily involved and attacked many ships and shore installations in these raids. One of the most famous strikes of this period was the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. An SBD reported a Japanese picket boat ahead of the task force. The Dauntless crew also reported that the boat had probably sighted them, thus precipitating the early launch of Doolittle's B bombers. Deliveries of the new Douglas SBD Dauntless began in Marchand were stepped up after Douglas SBD Dauntless attack on Pearl Harbor, so that this was the main type to be used throughout the major battles of The SBD-3 brought the Dauntless up to full combat standards. Self-sealing wing tanks, crew armor, and an armored windscreen were all introduced. Experience gained in the Battle of the Coral Sea prompted the introduction of twin. They were made standard in mid-production and earlier examples of the SBD-3 were retrofitted with the guns in the field. The added weight of these Douglas SBD Dauntless was offset to a certain extent by the Douglas SBD Dauntless of alclad to replace the dural skin of the earlier models, and the removal of the flotation equipment that was standard on the SBD Douglas SBD Dauntless speed fell by a small margin to mph, earning this model the tongue-in-cheek nickname of " The Speedy Three". Service ceiling, however, improved from 26, to 27, ft. In Maythe U. In this, the world's first carrier duel in which the opposing ships never came within sight of each other, Dauntlesses were responsible for sinking the Japanese small carrier Shoho. Despite the fact that the Japanese sank the larger U. In less than a month's time, Dauntlesses would improve on their Coral Sea performance. With the failure of the southern expedition, the Japanese decided to strike at the U. The plan was to gain a base from where they could threaten the Hawaiian Islands and thus draw the remaining U. The U. Navy had an advantage in that they had broken the Japanese code and knew the attack was coming. Also, the Japanese did not realize that Yorktown, which had been damaged and believed sunk at Coral Sea, had been hastily repaired and was able to join Enterprise and Hornet at Midway. The three U. Most were the latest model, but a few Douglas SBD Dauntless and -2s were also aboard. While the Japanese had a much larger fleet, the sides were more evenly matched in the crucial area of airpower. The Japanese had four aircraft carriers, and the U. By June 3, the American carriers were ready and had spotted the enemy troop transports. The next day the Japanese opened the battle Douglas SBD Dauntless a strike on Midway. Because of the varying launch times and speeds of the different aircraft, the TBD torpedo planes were the first to attack the Japanese carriers. The slow Devastators were easy targets Douglas SBD Dauntless the Japanese fighters and were soon beaten back with no damage to the carriers. Because of the uncoordinated nature of the attack, the SBD squadrons had trouble finding the carriers. The Hornet SBD's never found the carriers. The attacking TBDs had drawn down Douglas SBD Dauntless Japanese fighter screen and the Dauntlesses found the targets wide open. Japanese indecision as to whether to launch further strikes on the island or to attack the recently discovered American carriers, left bombs and torpedoes, along with aviation fuel, scattered on the carriers' decks. The combined onslaught rained 39 bombs on three Japanese carriers in three to four minutes, and 11 direct hits mortally damaged the Akagi, Kaga and Soryu. The fourth carrier, Hiryu, was located Douglas SBD Dauntless and was also sunk by Dauntlesses. Japan lost four carriers and many of its experienced aviators for the loss of 35 Dauntlesses from the six Navy and one Marine SBD squadrons engaged. The Dauntless would also play a significant part in the first major American offensive, the fight for Guadalcanal. Marine SBDs based on the island attacked Japanese ships, which were known as the Douglas SBD Dauntless Express", that were attempting to reinforce the island. Ship-based SBDs also participated in the eastern Douglas SBD Dauntless campaign, of which Guadalcanal was a part, and sank another Japanese carrier. While the SBD is most often associated with the Pacific theater of operations, it did serve in a limited capacity in the Atlantic. In contrast with the naval actions of the Pacific, SBD attacks were mostly against ground targets in support of the Allied landings. They were, however, called upon to attack seven Vichy French cruisers that set out to attack the Allied troopships. With the sinking of the Japanese battleship Hiei in Douglas SBD Dauntless Pacific three days earlier, this was the second enemy battleship sunk by Dauntlesses within one week. Douglas SBD-6 Dauntless | National Air and Space Museum

He had flown down with a group of other Zeros from the Japanese airfield at Douglas SBD Dauntless, New Britain, that morning for the express purpose of attacking the ships supporting the first American opposed amphibious invasion of World War II, the Operation Watchtower landings at Gavutu, Tanambogo, Tulgi, and Guadalcanal. As Sakai and his wingman approached the skies above Tulagi, he spotted a group of eight American aircraft beneath him at an altitude of 7, feet. Wrongly assuming that they were U. Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless F4F Wildcat fighters, Sakai nosed his Zero over to begin an attack with his wingman obediently following. Closing in on the American aircraft from behind at full throttle, he sensed that the element of surprise was his. But at a range of just yards Sakai gazed at his targets through his gun sight and reached a sober realization: These were not fighters he was approaching. By this time it was too late to break off the attack. Sakai realized that he was attempting to pounce on a group of dive bombers. These aircraft were from the carrier USS Enterprise CV-6 and were circling above Tulagi, awaiting orders to drop their bombs on Japanese targets on the island below. Unlike the F4F Wildcat fighterU. In the back seat of the Douglas SBD Dauntless piloted by Ensign Eldor E. Patterson, Jr. Jones opened fire with Sakai only feet directly astern of his aircraft. I could see his face clearly, his body and head forced back against the headrest of the cockpit. The plane went almost vertically upwards and then fell smoking. That was the last I saw of him. As the eight tailgunners followed the Zero with their machine guns, slugs shattered the Douglas SBD Dauntless glass and hit Sakai. Fragments from the bullets struck him in the chest, the left leg, the elbow, and the face. One tracer round missed his right eye by less than an inch and melted the rim of his goggles. In the brief encounter, the tailgunners expended over 1, rounds of ammunition and seriously injured one of the best Japanese fighter pilots of the war. At that time, the U. Navy was transitioning from biplanes to all metal, low-wing monoplanes with retractable landing gear, and the BT series was on the cutting edge of that transition. The basic airframe appearance of the Dauntless was established with the first model and would vary only slightly throughout production. Its distinctive greenhouse canopy and round-tipped wings made it an easily identifiable aircraft. But perhaps the most recognizable feature of the Dauntless was its perforated dive flaps. In a steep dive, these flaps Douglas SBD Dauntless deploy upward and downward from the trailing edge of the wing to maintain a constant airspeed of knots. The three-inch perforations in the flaps allowed airflow to stabilize the aircraft, making the Dauntless a rock-solid bombing platform. The SBD-1 was equipped with the powerful 1,horsepower Wright R radial engine, but it had an overall flight range that was considered too modest for aircraft carrier operations. The SBD was also a well-armed bomber. The pilot could control a pair of ANM2. Most importantly, the Dauntless was built to deliver bombs with precision, so it was equipped with underwing ordnance mounting points. In all, these features made the Dauntless a simple, effective, and rugged combat aircraft. The ANM2. In addition to having a different receiver and barrel than the M series, the ANM2 was equipped with a different feed cover, extractor, barrel Douglas SBD Dauntless, and bolt. These parts were specially engineered to allow the weapon to feed from either the left or right side of the Douglas SBD Dauntless, a feature that made the ANM2. Douglas SBD Dauntless round fixed ammunition box Douglas SBD Dauntless attached to left side of the weapon to keep the belted. The U. At about that same time, Douglas produced the SBD-3 version of the Dauntless with another increase in fuel capacity, extending maximum bombing range to 1, miles. This third model of the Dauntless entered service in March and also saw the introduction of self-sealing fuel tanks and armor protection for the crew. Marine Corps. That process was still in motion when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7,and the Dauntless went to war. The Douglas SBD experienced combat from the very first day of the conflict, with the first losses the result of action with Japanese aircraft over Oahu. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the Dauntless was one third of the team of aircraft that served on U. Navy aircraft carriers during the first six critical months of the war. Along with fighters and torpedo bombers, SBDs flew during each of the hit-and-run raids during the opening quarter of During the Battle of the Coral Seathe Dauntless proved that it was effective at the job it was designed for—search and strike. In addition to that, though, SBDs in the hands of skilled naval aviators during that battle proved that the aircraft was good at something else too: air-to-air combat. On the morning of May 8, a section of SBD-3s was flying anti-torpedo-plane patrol to protect the Yorktown from enemy torpedo bombers. Lieutenant j. Vejtesa, one of the pilots on the patrol, had put a 1,pound bomb through the deck of the Shoho the day before and was minutes away from still more excitement. With superior speed and agility, the nimble Japanese fighters Douglas SBD Dauntless brought down four of the Douglas SBD Dauntless, but then they came up against Swede Vejtasa. Each time one of the enemy fighters attacked, Swede would turn into it and spoil the setup. Then Vejtasa would fire back at the attacker using the twin. And, although he was flying a dive bomber against fighters, Vejtasa miraculously shot down one of the Zeros. Clearly, the SBD was no ordinary dive bomber. The Japanese descended on the battle area with naval might divided into a transport force, a main body, and an aircraft carrier striking force composed of the fleet carriers KagaAkagiSoryuand Hiryu. Their objective was twofold: capture Midway Island and lure the U. Navy task force off Midway into a final, decisive battle that would destroy it. The Marine aviators who fought in the battle all Douglas SBD Dauntless from the naval air station on Eastern Island, Midway. They were led into combat by year-old Major Lofton R. A graduate of the U. The squadron took off from Midway at am and flew to the northwest side of the island. Today it is known as Honiara International Airport. One of the bombers pressing forward in the middle of the chaos of antiaircraft fire was SBD-2 piloted by 1st Lt. Daniel Iverson, Jr. As he dove toward the target through a thin cloud, two Zeros followed him. In the back seat of the Dauntless, Pfc. Wallace J. Reid fired burst after burst from his single ANM2. At Douglas SBD Dauntless appropriate moment, Iverson hit the release switch at an altitude of feet above the Hiryuand the displacing Douglas SBD Dauntless dropped the pound bomb away from the aircraft. The young pilot then leveled off close to the water, closed his dive-flaps, opened his cowl flaps, and pushed the throttle forward as far as it would go. The engine surged to 2, rpm. As raced away from the Hiryutwo more Japanese fighters joined the chase as Pfc. Reid desperately struggled to hold the attackers at Douglas SBD Dauntless with his Douglas SBD Dauntless. One round slammed into the instrument panel, disabling the airspeed indicator. After what seemed like an eternity, the Japanese fighters that had been hounding Douglas SBD Dauntless broke off their attack and turned back toward the fleet. A bleeding Lieutenant Douglas SBD Dauntless brought the Douglas SBD Dauntless back to Midway and made a crash landing. After he shut his engine down and he and Reid had jumped to safety, Iverson was surprised to see that there were some bullet holes in the aircraft. As proved, the SBD Dauntless was rugged, reliable, and capable of absorbing lots of punishment. Reid subsequently received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his persistent Douglas SBD Dauntless and determination during the harrowing flight. Major Henderson and 1st Lt. Although the Hiryu sustained no significant damage, VMSB did indeed make a material contribution to victory in the Battle of Midway. All of these attacks were conducted by land-based aircraft and took place between 8 and am on June 4. Although brief and responsible for almost no damage, these attacks forced the Japanese ships to maneuver defensively, caused their antiaircraft gunners to expend large quantities of ammunition, and made their combat Douglas SBD Dauntless patrol planes burn fuel. For the next hour, the Japanese carriers were able to recover aircraft and begin the process of rearming and refueling, but then American carrier-based squadrons began a new series of attacks. With no fighter escort to protect them from the nimble Zeros, all 15 of the slow-moving TBDs were easily picked off within a matter of minutes; they did no damage to the enemy fleet. At 10 am a formation of TBDs from the Enterprise commenced an attack. Douglas SBD Dauntless again the Japanese fleet dodged the bullet and suffered no meaningful damage. But the cumulative effect of fighting off enemy aircraft Douglas SBD Dauntless more than two hours stretched the Japanese to the limit. Although they had been successful in defending their carriers, their luck was about to run out. As Japanese gunners and combat air patrol fighters attempted to bring down the last of the Devastators Douglas SBD Dauntless at Douglas SBD Dauntless level, lookouts on the Akagi noticed American aircraft high above the fleet. At that moment, 25 SBD-3s from the Enterprise entered their dives in Douglas SBD Dauntless attack on Kaga that quickly resulted in four direct hits. Moments later, six more Enterprise SBD-3s dove on Akagi and scored two direct hits with lethal 1,pound bombs. It was so significant a loss that it materially altered their battle plan. Admiral Yamamoto ordered a general retirement from the battle Douglas SBD Dauntless that night. With the cancellation of the plan to capture Midway and the obvious failure to destroy Douglas SBD Dauntless U. Pacific Fleet in a final, decisive showdown, the Japanese conceded defeat. Although technically the battle was over, the Dauntless was not quite done destroying ships. The next day, June 5, U. Douglas SBD Dauntless (Dive Bomber) - Pearl Harbor Aviation Musuem

Dive bombing requires precise maneuverability and accuracy to fly at steep trajectory and hit a moving target. By some accounts, the Dauntless sank more Japanese ships than any other plane. In the spring ofBuNo was assigned to Douglas SBD Dauntless Bombing Squadron 10 aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise for Douglas SBD Dauntless short time before being returned to the States to serve as a trainer at Naval Air Station Glenview, Illinois. In Novemberthis aircraft was lost on a training flight in Lake Michigan where it remained until when it Douglas SBD Dauntless recovered by Douglas SBD Dauntless US Navy and restored to its present condition. Funding courtesy of Madlyn and Paul Hilliard. Developed as a strategic bomber in the s, the rugged B was used in every theater in World War II, and became legendary for its ability to sustain heavy damage in battle while maintaining self-sufficient firepower. The B bomber soldiered in every theater of war, excelling in multiple roles, chiefly as a ground-attack aircraft later in the war. They gained fame in April in the daring Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. The F4U Corsair entered combat inand gave Allied naval aviators a winning edge against their opponents. Renowned for its speed, ruggedness, and firepower, the Corsair excelled as both a fighter and an attack aircraft in support of ground forces. Liberators flew faster, higher and farther than the older B, thanks to greater fuel capacity and an innovative low-drag wing design. Douglas SBD Dauntless.