5 Minute Guides to Aircraft: Douglas TBD-1 Devastator

hello and welcome to the new five minute guide on the Douglas TBD Devastator uh because it is like 93 degrees outside I do have the AC on in the background so I apologize for that background noise but without further Ado let us begin so in the 1920s America's naval aircraft were all exclusively biplanes as dictated by the weight limitations and design restrictions that came with making carrier launched aircraft when America was looking to modernize its Naval Air arm in the 1930s with newer Technologies now available to it it began a design competition for new bombers which attracted the submission of aircraft from Brewster Douglas Vaught and even Northrop the xtbd-1 from Douglas would win the competition alongside vaught's sb2u Vindicator and the Northrup bt-1 which would later become Douglas's SPD dauntless first flown in 1935 the xtbd-1 proved very promising thanks to a list of technical features and impressive performance which would convince the Navy to adopt the aircraft as its new carrier-borne level bomber and torpedo bomber with official introduction in 1937 and the designation tpd1 Nick's named torpeker by its Crews and then later Devastator it would become the US Navy's first modeling carrier-born aircraft as well as the first Naval plane with a fully enclosed cockpit the first Naval plane with hydraulically powered folding wings and the first Naval plane to use in all metal Construction as designed the Devastator could reach a top speed of 206 miles per hour at a cruising altitude of 8 000 feet with a maximum takeoff weight of just over 10 000 pounds a fee only capable due to its Pratt and Whitney twin wasp engine that delivered to 900 horsepower for payload as a level bomber and torpedo bomber the Devastator could mount a variety of general-purpose demolition bombs as well as the infamously unreliable Mark 13 torpedo all of these performance figures painted the Devastator to be a fairly capable and reasonably effective aircraft with 130 examples being ordered and built from the course of 1937 to 1939 but why only two years of production well despite its admirable performance figures for 1937 the US Navy was not dumb and was aware that these figures would quickly become outclassed by newer aircraft and rendered sub-optimal by improved technology indeed by 1939 the plane was already out of date and designed for its successor the TBF Avenger were already in the works but then Pearl Harbor was bombed with the US now dragged into the largest War ever seen in human history it was up to the Devastator to hold the line as Navy's Premier level bomber and torpedo bomber until it could pass the torch to the Avenger early in the Pacific front the Devastator held its own scoring successful raids from the carrier's Enterprise in Yorktown against previously held U.S Islands now occupied by the Japanese and even achieving a strategic Victory by the skin of their teeth at the Battle of the Coral Sea helping sink the Japanese carrier shoho and stopping the naval invasion of Port Moresby it was here that the infamously unreliable Mark 13 torpedo began to show its design faults which have already been covered in great detail by dracenophil unfortunately for Devastator Crews these issues would not be solved before Midway at Midway 41 Devastators were sent up from Hornet Enterprise and the newly repaired Yorktown fresh from the Battle of the Coral Sea to strike the Japanese Fleet before it could Replay in kind it was an uncoordinated mess with no fighter cover to keep zeros off their backs they descended to low and slow to line up their torpedo runs and watched his friends cut fire and slammed into the unforgiving Waters of the Pacific those that did manage to get their Torpedoes away would score no hits as their Torpedoes were either dodged ran off course or malfunctioned out of the fleet of 41 planes four made it back to Enterprise with two landing on Yorktown none returned it to hornet their sacrifice however was not in vain for it was their attack that brought the fighter cover from the Japanese carriers down low just in time for the late arriving SBD dauntlesses to score a victory that changed the war in America's favor but that account is best left for the dauntlesses episode following Midway all Devastators were recalled from active service to be replaced by the TBF Avenger as it began to rule out Fleet wide their public reputation would be forever tarnished by this with some calling it the worst plane ever built however this not a fair assessment for it was not the devastator's faults exclusively that led to its downfall granted the plane was out of date but its usage and tactics were the key to its downfall shared alongside the failings of the mark 13 torpedo going in with no fighter cover was the major mistake with no Wildcats to back up their attack zeros had free reign on the Devastators add to that the intrinsic risk of the torpedo run having to fly a low slow and level to get off a proper release or else risk breaking the torpedo it's no wonder their losses were so heavy these issues with Doctrine and tactics compounded with the faults of the mark 13 torpedo would even plague the adventure as it transferred into the role of the Devastator once held it was only later in the fall of 1943 when these issues were finally ironed out that the Avenger would score victories in its intended role with no need for the Devastator meanwhile the remaining stock would be scrapped and none would be preserved for posterity's sake a replica made for the movie Midway from 2019 was donated to the USS Midway after the film and can be seen today but all original examples still lay silently at the bottom of the Pacific

Channel: The Aerodrome

Views: 8,514

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Id: N84-jxa0sw0

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023