Talk:Douglas SBD Dauntless

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Military history: Aviation / World War I

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Aviation: Aircraft

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A fact from Douglas SBD Dauntless appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 March 2004. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that SBD Dauntless dive bombers sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and a cruiser during the Battle of Midway?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2004/March.

Wikipedia

Operational History

If I recall correctly, in Richard Frank's Guadalcanal, he noted that the effectiveness of the SBDs based at Henderson Field kept the Japanese from entering Ironbottom Sound in daylight (except for the desperate and disastrous effort during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal), and that the limit of the SBD's combat radius from Henderson was the closest they could approach in daylight before running in at night. That's why neutralizing Henderson was, in Frank's opinion, the key to recapturing the island. If that's confirmed, the paragraph on Guadalcanal under Operational History should be revised accordingly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.122.245.234 (talk) 18:58, 23 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Trapeze

This bomber was fitted with a trapeze to clear the main, centreline carried, bomb away from the propeller arc during diving attacks, yes? This does not seem to be mentioned as a design feature in the article.

Furthermore, if this design feature has been addressed, what was the maximum weight of ordnance that could be suspended and released by the trapeze? I have long been under the impression that this would have been a 1,000lb bomb, but the modern statistics about this aircraft's maximum payload seem to all about the 2,250lb figure, without specifying what types of ordnance this payload would be made up of.

For such an important aircraft, it weould seem that one of us should know this and could contribute it to the article. 2A00:23C7:3119:AD01:909B:62F2:2BAA:1168 (talk) 14:59, 28 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]