Friday, September 20, 2013

Air Modeller Issue 50

In 1934, the Douglas Company designer, Ed Heinemann began work on a new dive bomber for the U.S. Navy, which was to be based on aircraft carriers. After many twists and intermediate type designs, finally on 23 July 1 938, the first flight of the prototype of the Dauntless, the XBT-2 took place. The first production model was shipped on June 4, 1940, the SBD-1. Over the next four years, there were several models Dauntless (SBD-1, -2, -3, -4, -5 and -6), besides being used by the U.S. Navy, other countries, (Australia, Chile, France, Mexico, New Zealand and the UK), and the U.S. Army also used it, under the name of A-24 Banshee. At the beginning of hostilities against Japan, the Dauntless proved itself including in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal. And specifically in Midway where they won great respect, being the principal architects of victory, because in four minutes they sank three of four Japanese aircraft carriers. The fourth aircraft carrier, was sunk a little later. In particular the model SBD-3 performed well at Midway and were the same aircraft that had participated in the Coral Sea a month earlier, well worn aircraft, and experienced in combat, these are aspects that must be reflected in the realisation of the model I had planned.

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