#USA #USNavy #planespotting #planespotter #avgeek #aviation #aviationdaily #airplanes #military #history - The unassuming two-seater Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber was America's early World War II dive-bomber.  The SBD could manage nearly 80 degree dives, was perhaps the hero of Midway and is credited with sinking more Japanese ships than any other aircraft. I've always been fascinated by the SBD's milled/drilled slats/flaps...

The first SBD below is an SBD-3 that hangs in the World War II Museum in New Orleans' Boeing Gallery. She served at Guadalcanal, on CV Enterprise and in 11/1944 was lost on a training mission in Lake Michigan, where she remained until 1990, and then she was restored to her beautiful current state. Wow!  The parked SBD below is at the USN's Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.