Continuing the theme of the planes that did things during the Second World War, answering one of the questions, I want to say just a few words.
Well, "Flying Fortresses" are not interesting to me as objects of consideration. Well, what a merit: they gathered together in 500-1000 planes, took with them a couple of hundred fighters, flew and turned another city into rubble?
Sorry, the flying club from 1000 "Fortresses" is the weapon of Pithecanthropus. You can criticize the Ju-87 and Pe-2 as much as you like, but these were swords for precise work. Therefore, we will leave all these B-17, B-24 and B-29 for a very distant later.
And our today's hero was from a completely different opera. Douglas SBD "Dauntless" (will go further in Russian transcription) is perhaps the most famous US naval bomber.
Its history is very remarkable in that it was decommissioned even before the start of the war, and it turned out that the plane took part in all major naval battles. Moreover, it was the Fearless who sank the cream of the Japanese fleet throughout the war, and in 1942 it was the crews of these aircraft that sentenced more Japanese ships than all other naval aircraft combined.
I would translate Dauntless as Crazy. Firstly, there were no towers, and secondly, indeed, in order to fight on this bomber, one had to be a little less titanium guy than the pilot of "Swordfish".
So, the story of the hero of the Battle of Midway begins, which became the Pacific Battle of Kursk and after which the Japanese imperial fleet, by and large, said: 終 わ り, that is, "everything."
It all began in 1932, when a certain John Northrop left Douglas Aircraft to found his own firm in El Segundo, California.
The Douglases were practical guys, and, considering Northrop a genius in terms of aeronautical engineering, they helped with money and generally tried to be friends, if that happened.
Looking ahead, I will say that it was worth it. Northrop was really a great engineer, creating really advanced aircraft. Only sometimes they were very expensive. And so - P-61 "Black Widow" and B-2, which went into series after the death of Northrop - as an example.
During his work in his own company, Northrop created several really successful aircraft with very decent characteristics ("Gamma" and "Delta"), which worked for a long time on US postal lines.
But Northrop's finest hour came in 1934, when the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics announced a competition to develop a new specialized dive bomber. It's time to change a bunch of old biplanes of different brands for something more modern.
Brewster, Martin, and Vout offered biplanes for the competition, so Northrop's design of an all-metal monoplane with a load-bearing skin and a lower wing position was recognized as the best.
The prototype was named XBT-1 and went up the test steps.
The aircraft had many innovations and advanced solutions that had not been used before in the design of aircraft. The aircraft was an all-metal low-wing aircraft, the main landing gear was retracted into rather large fairings on the lower wing, leaving the lower parts of the wheels half-open.
For the durability required for a dive bomber, lead designer Heinemann used a sparless honeycomb wing structure. This is not a novelty, such a wing was on the first mail plane of Northrop "Alpha", and then it was successfully used by "Douglas" in its DC.
But a problem arose: the honeycomb design of the wing did not allow to accommodate the folding mechanism of the wings, but they ordered a sea-based aircraft!
Oddly enough, the XBT-1 was the only aircraft with such a wing design adopted by the US Navy. In order to somehow compensate for the lack of folding of the wings, Heinemann reduced the size of the aircraft as much as possible. As a result, it was one of the most compact bombers in the world.
Then there were tests, as a result of which in 1936 the US Navy ordered a series of fifty-four vehicles under the designation BT-1. New dive bombers became part of the air groups of the new aircraft carriers Yorktown and Enterprise.
And then the trouble began. The new bombers showed just a bunch of problems that had to be taken more than seriously. Heading instability at low speeds, low efficiency of ailerons and rudders at low speeds, and the ability of the aircraft to spontaneously start spinning the barrel with a sharp increase in engine speed, generally led to several fatal accidents.
In general, the Naval Bureau decided not to order the BT-1 anymore.
Everything seemed to be? But no. The pragmatism of the Americans played a certain role here, and the contract included the costs of creating the next prototype. This saved everything, and while the bureau was feverishly figuring out what to do with the sudden flightless happiness of VT-1, Northrop calmly analyzed what had happened, made conclusions and began work, fortunately, the funds for this were also included in the contract.
The engine was replaced ("Twin Wasp Junior" with a more powerful 1000-horsepower Wright XR-1820-32 "Cyclone"), the two-bladed propeller was replaced by a three-bladed, and even variable pitch. And nothing! The XBT-2 did not show anything different from its predecessor. The problems remained at the same level.
Northrop did not give up, and having agreed with NASA, drove the plane into a wind tunnel. And finally, the source of the problems was found.
The bomber was aerodynamically refined. The main achievement in this regard was the fully retractable landing gear. The hefty fairings of the semi-retractable landing gear disappeared from the lower surface of the wings and the main struts were now fully folded in the transverse plane, removing the wheels in the niches of the lower fuselage. The cockpit canopy has also been redesigned. Heinemann went through 21 tail variants and 12 different aileron profiles before a satisfactory configuration was found.
While the lead designer was fighting the car, Northrop lost to the Douglas and surrendered. And the seemingly independent Northrop company became part of Douglas, from which, in fact, it branched off.
But the plane passed all the tests and in 1938 a new order for 144 aircraft followed, called SBD-1 (scout bomber Douglas - Douglas reconnaissance bomber). The change from B to SB was due to the fact that the abbreviation "B" was assigned to multi-engine bombers.
Although the renaming did not entail a revision of combat missions at all.
Nevertheless, the plane was "damp". Weapons (two course synchronous machine guns 12, 7-mm and one to protect the rear hemisphere 7, 62-mm machine gun) took place, bomb armament too (one bomb weighing up to 726 kg on the ventral pylon, and two bombs weighing up to 45 kg or two depth charges on the wing pylons) were also present, but there was no reservation at all.
Despite the lack of crew armor and some other "jambs", the aircraft was put into service and the first SBD-2s were received by the aircraft carriers "Enterprise" and "Lexington".
They were the first to receive the baptism of fire, since on the fateful morning of December 7, 1941, the Enterprise was in the Pearl Harbor area, returning after the delivery of six Wildcats to Wake Island.
Eighteen SBD-2s were flown into the air for reconnaissance in the area west of the aircraft carrier before approaching Pearl Harbor and were caught in a nightmare by Japanese aircraft.
Seven SBDs were shot down, but the Americans shot down two Zeros. This is how the bomber opened its battle score in that war.
And literally three days later, on December 10, Lieutenant Dixon destroyed the submarine of the Japanese Imperial Navy I-70. The first enemy warship sunk by the United States in World War II was sunk by the Dountless. And - I will note - far from the last.
Further more. After Pearl Harbor, the Americans mainly carried out raids on Japanese positions, rather of a disturbing plan. But in the spring of 1942, defending Australia from a possible attack by the Japanese fleet, the Americans staged a battle called the Battle of the Coral Sea.
And here "Crazy" for the first time showed their temper. On May 7, they sank the light aircraft carrier "Shoho", and on May 8, they very seriously hung up the full-fledged attack aircraft carrier "Sekaku". Three bombs knocked the aircraft carrier out of action, and he went for repairs.
Yes, the Japanese did not stay crying in the corners and drowned Lexington, but they refused to conquer New Guinea and Australia.
At the end of the spring of 1942, the SBD-3 appeared, which was a finalized prototype. All tanks were protected, bulletproof glass appeared in the cockpit canopy, crew armor protection, a 7, 62-mm machine gun that protected the rear hemisphere was replaced with a pair of the same machine guns.
Next was the Battle of Midway.
Everyone, in general, is aware of how Admiral Nagumo was mistaken (and more than once), everyone is already aware, we should focus on the tactics of the Americans.
Yes, without fighter cover, the Devastator torpedo bombers suffered catastrophic losses from the Zero attacks and anti-aircraft artillery fire. Of the forty-one torpedo bombers who participated in the attack, only four returned to their ships.
But while the Japanese fighters were busy finishing off the last TBDs, fifty Dountlesss approached at the height. The fighters, which worked on torpedo bombers flying at low altitude, simply did not have time to do anything. And the diving "Reckless" did their job.
The Akagi, Kaga and Soryu, whose decks were filled with planes preparing for takeoff, fueled and loaded with bombs and torpedoes, turned into flaming ruins.
"Hiryu", which walked somewhat away from the main forces, remained intact and fired all its aircraft against the "Yorktown", which could not withstand the attacks and was abandoned by the crew.
But the Downtless of the Enterprise and the already out of service Yorktown cut Hirya like a tortoise god.
The Japanese ship burned for a long time and was eventually sunk by the crew the next day.
So what happens? Not the most advanced and modern bomber in a company with far from the most advanced and modern torpedo bombers (we'll talk about the Devastators in the next article) sank almost half of the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet in a few hours.
Many historians consider the Battle of Midway to be the turning point in the war in the Pacific. And they do it quite rightly.
Despite the status of a naval aviation aircraft, the Dountless, due to the lack of folding wings, could not be used on escort and light aircraft carriers, which the United States began to produce in frightening quantities.
In 1943, the command of the fleet decided to replace the Dountless with the new SB2C Helldiver, but delays in the production of the Helldiver left the old men in service not only for the whole of 1943, but also for half of 1944.
But even when the Helldiver was confidently registered on the decks of aircraft carriers, the Dauntlesss did not go to cut, but were transferred to the Marine Corps and fought from land airfields as if nothing had happened until the end of the war.
What about the plane? The plane was good. When the handling issues were resolved, everything was just fine.
Yes, SBD did not shine with speed, it is. But he did not really need it, because if enemy fighters were taken for the Dauntless, then a second volley of onboard weapons and the ability to maneuver would be more valuable.
The tail section of the fuselage and the center section were sealed, which ensured long-term unsinkability of the aircraft when landing on water. At least enough to pull the rubber raft with a supply of water and food out of the radio operator's cockpit. By the way, the pilot had a standard boat compass installed on the visor in the cockpit, which could be easily removed if necessary.
In general, it is a very well-deserved aircraft that has passed its combat path with honor and, most importantly, efficiently.
LTH SBD-6
Wingspan, m: 12, 65;
Length, m: 10, 06;
Height, m: 3, 94;
Wing area, m2: 30, 19.
Weight, kg:
- empty aircraft: 2 964;
- normal takeoff: 4 318.
Engine: 1 x Wright R-1820-66 Cyclone 9 x 1350;
Maximum speed, km / h: 410;
Cruising speed, km / h: 298;
Practical range, km: 1 244;
Maximum rate of climb, m / min: 518;
Practical ceiling, m: 7 680.
Crew, people: 2
Armament:
- two 12, 7-mm synchronous machine guns;
- two turret 7, 62 mm machine guns;
- ventral mounts for bombs weighing up to 726 kg and underwing mounts up to 295 kg.
A total of 5,936 SBD "Dauntless" aircraft of all variants were produced.
