Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless

From The Air Combat Wiki

Contents 1 Fighter Ace Screenshots 2 Fighter Ace Ratings 3 Fighter Ace Performance 4 Historical Statistics 5 Strengths 6 Weaknesses 7 History 8 Sources 9 See Also

Fighter Ace Screenshots

Screenshot by HG_CO_KenJr	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ
Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ

Fighter Ace Ratings

Durability: 5

Speed: 4

Maneuverability: 7

Firepower: 2

Climb Rate: 2

Ground Attack: 2

Fighter Ace Performance

Top Speeds						Climb Rates
	Sea Level	4921' 1500m	9843' 3000m	19685' 6000m	Best Speed	Best IAS	to 1000m	to 3000m	to 6000m
mph	231	239	249	252	256@ 15748'	137 mph	2:17	6:59	16:22
kph	372	385	400	406	412@ 4800m	220 kph

Historical Statistics

Service Date: December 1940

Primary Guns: 1x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) machine gun with 250 rpg in cowl

Secondary Guns: 1x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) machine gun with 250 rpg in cowl

Defensive Guns: 1x Browning 0.3" (7.62mm) flex machine gun with 600 rpg in rear cockpit

Ordnance: 1x 250 lb (113 kg) or 1x 500 lb (227 kg) or 1x 1000 lb (454 kg) bomb under fuselage, plus 2x 100 lb (45 kg) or 2x 250 lb (113 kg) or 2x 500 lb (227 kg) bombs under wings. Maximum load of 1500 lbs (680 kg)

Engine(s): 1x Wright Cyclone R-1820-32 radial rated for 1,000 hp at sea level

Int Fuel Capacity: 1,860 lbs (844 kg)

Ext Fuel Capacity: none

Maximum Speeds: 256 mph (412 kph) at 14,000 ft (4,270 m)

Ceiling: 27,260 ft (8,309 m)

Loaded Weight: 10,337 lbs (4,689 kg)

Wing Area: 325 sq ft (30.2 sq m)

Wing Loading: 31.8 lbs/sq ft (155.2 kg/sq m)

Strengths

Durability: The Dauntless was built for strength and could absorb a considerable amount of punishment from enemy fighters and flak.

Weaknesses

Speed: Known as the Slow But Deadly, the Dauntless could top out at about 250 mph.

History

Designed to meet the 1934 U.S. Navy design request for a new dive-bomber design, the Northrop XBT-1 was the progenitor of the "Slow But Deadly" Dauntless, which was the scourge of the Japanese Navy. The XBT-1 was designed for strength, using a multi-cellular wing structure but had horrible handling characteristics, which resulted in several fatal crashes.

Addressing these faults, Northrop took their revised XBT-2 design to the wind-tunnel at Langley and spent six months making the recommended changes. But before it could be completed, Jack Northrop resigned and the company's offices became Douglas Aviation's El Seguendo division. The XBT-2 was thus redesignated the XSBD-1 to reflect both the new company and the Navy's new Scout Bomber classification.

With the acceptance of the type by the Navy in February 1939, an order for 144 SBD-1s was placed and production commenced. The SBD-1 featured a pair of .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the cowl and firing through the propeller arc. The primary offensive armament was a single 1600 lb. bomb mounted on a special "crutch" under the fuselage. During a dive, the crutch could be swung down so that the bomb could clear the propeller.

Hard points under each wing allowed the SBD-1 to carry an additional pair of 100 lb. bombs or depth charges. For defensive purposes, the radio operator had a .30 caliber machine gun on a flex mount positioned to fire aft.

However, the 210-gallon internal fuel capacity was calculated to give an effective range of only 200 miles, once form-up and landing pattern times were added to the equation. Douglas said they could fix the problem and starting with the 58th production plane added 100 gallons of fuel, along with a few other minor changes, the result being designated the SBD-2.

By the time of Pearl Harbor, the Enterprise's VS-6 and VB-6 along with the Lexington's VS-2 and VB-2 squadrons were equipped with the SBD-2. On Wednesday, December 10, 1941, a Dauntless flown by Lt. C.E. Dickson of VS-6 scored the first enemy ship sunk by a Dauntless, the Japanese submarine I-70. During the coming year, the Dauntless would go on to sink more enemy shipping than all other aircraft combined.

The Dauntless was the only plane to participate in all five major carrier-only naval engagements in the Pacific and it broke the back of the Japanese Navy at Midway, sinking three enemy carriers in a space of less than 30 minutes. Although considered obsolescent when it was introduced, the Dauntless served as the principal U.S. Navy ship-based dive-bomber until late 1944 and also served with the Royal Navy.

Sources

Stern, Rob; SBD Dauntless In Action, Aircraft Number 64; Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas; 1984.

Brown, Eric; Wings Of The Navy, Flying Allied Carrier Aircraft of World War Two; Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland; 1980.

See Also

Fighter Ace Planes Inventory

The Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc.

Aircraft Manufacturers During World War II