Interesting aircraft: Douglas SBD Dauntless

Yet another old favourite, the SBD Dauntless was a US dive bomber from 1940 to 1945. I like it for the exact opposite reasons for liking the Valkyrie, for where as the Valkyrie is stream lined and elegant, the Dauntless looks like a ramshackle bucket of bolts. There is something oddly cheap about the design, with the always-open cockpits and perforated flaps, but behind the eccentric appearance was a first rate bomber, nick named by the Americans as the "Son of a Bitch 2nd Class."

Dauntless's saw service from the very first day of the American war in the Pacific as a flight of SBD's was caught arriving at Hawaii by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbour, and were subsequently engaged. In the beginning of the war they were often used as an ineffectual stop gap measure against the Japanese, but they came into their right at the Battle of the Coral Sea, and from that point on they were murderous. Even enemy fighters began to find them deceptive, with some SBD's taking on multiple Japanese fighters and winning. In one famous example, and SBD was attacked by three A6M Zero's but shot them down instead (see video below).



There is no doubt it was a great war plane, its record speaks for itself, but it is the look of the aircraft that appeals to me, with their iconic over sized markings and their lazy good looks, the SBD's look like the sort of plane I would buy for myself if I were a millionaire in need of a toy.



Part Two