Jim MacDonald wrote:
OD/NG,
I requested info from NASM several years ago about purchasing blueprints/engineering drawings of the TBD from them. They didn't have anything except for some photos and I believe some of Paul Matt's scale drawings. I've since been able to get Xerox copies of the maintenance manual, flight manual and engine manual, but NASM didn't even have those at the time I inquired about the blueprints.
I know that there are some scale RC plans for the TBD, but I have no idea how accurate they are. I wonder if it would be possible for Gateguards to use a combination of one of those sets of plans and photos to come up with some accurate replicas.
Maybe Lynn can chime in on whether anything new has come to light in the way of blueprints in the last couple of years. He has or had probably the most informative website out there on the TBD.
Mac
Great info, Mac, thanks for that! I was curious if the blueprints/engineering drawings existed for the TBD. With this new information, it make the case even more compelling for going after an existing TBD at the bottom of the ocean - whether it is in Jaluit atoll, off the coast of California, or off the coast of Florida. I know that the U.S. Navy is on record as saying that each of those airplanes is too far gone for restoration and only usable for patterns, but here is the exact situation where we need the patterns. With no blueprints/engineering drawings, no recreation can take place. An actual recovered TBD is the ONLY hope mankind has of ever seeing a restored TBD in a museum some day. I seriously hope that Taras can convince the U.S. Navy to go after the TBD in the deep ocean, thousands of miles away from any island. If so, that would be THE warbird recovery of all times.