World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers were ordered in 1937 as one of the most advanced torpedo bombers in the world, and it became the first widely used all-metal carrier aircraft of the United States Navy. It was also the first carrier aircraft of the US Navy to employ hydraulically folding wings. During normal flight, the pilot, the bombardier, and the radio operator/rear gunner sat in that order under the large canopy, but during attack runs the bombardier would lay prone underneath the cockpit, aiming his torpedo through a Norden bombsight at the bottom of the aircraft. Nevertheless, but by the time the United States entered the war, the rapid development of combat aircraft had already rendered the Devastators obsolete; the American replacement for Devastators, the Avengers, were already under development. Nevertheless, they continued to remain in naval service and claimed the credit of sinking the Japanese carrier Shoho during the Battle of the Coral Sea. During the Battle of Midway in Jun 1942, Devastators performed badly during their strikes against Japanese carriers; 41 were launched, only four made it back to their carriers, and to make matters worse, none of them claimed a hit on their targets. The US Navy quickly withdrew the 39 remaining Devastators from front line service, placing some of them in training squadrons.

SPECIFICATIONS

TBD

Machinery	One Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 Twin Wasp radial engine rated at 900hp
Armament	2x7.62mm machine guns, 1x453kg bomb or 1xMark VIII 544kg torpedo
Crew	3
Span	16.51 m
Length	12.48 m
Height	4.60 m
Wing Area	39.20 m²
Weight, Empty	2,804 kg
Weight, Loaded	4,473 kg
Weight, Maximum	4,623 kg
Speed, Maximum	331 km/h
Rate of Climb	3.70 m/s
Service Ceiling	6,000 m

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