Top Drawings, No. 41

Not for sale in Poland!


Douglas SBD Dauntless is one of the most popular American naval bomber of World War II era. The name Dauntless fits well to the aircraft's "personality". SBD was build with the aim of dive bombing which quickly were nicknamed as "helldiving". Interestingly one of the successors of Dauntless – Curtiss SB2C – was officially named "Helldiver". SBD was a two-seated light bomber and scout aircraft developed in year 1940 and based on Northrop BT-1 airframe. During the next year many improvements were added, such as: self-sealing fuel tanks, stronger armament and better electric installation. The most characteristic element were the airbrakes. They were mounted through almost full length of the bottom wing and halves of upper part of wings. Therefore the braking system was very effective stabilizing the dive, easing the aiming and getting plane from the steep dive. The plane became fully capable war machine. The most popular version was SBD-5 with 1200 HP Wright R-1820-60 radial engine. Almost 3000 SBD-5 were produced. The plane took part in many important battles over the Pacific but definitely the most significant were Battle for Midway and over the Guadalcanal. Dauntless' were solid and reliable planes and crews really liked them. They quickly gave it a special nickname made from letters SBD – "Slow but Deadly". Today there are four airworthy SBD's (all in the USA). 11 more are museum exhibits or undergoing restoration.