SBD Dauntless list

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:40 am

Hi all,
Just working on a current listing of SBD Dauntlesses, and I have the following aircraft listed, but not matched by the WRG Directory. Can anyone confirm / deny / update these identities / locations?

Thanks in advance.

In addition to the three machines on show at Pensacola, and the other a/c on loan, I have:

SBD-3 SBD-3 06626 B-24 Under Restoration National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Fl.

SBD-3 SBD-3 06583 Under Restoration National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Fl,

SBD-5 SBD-5 36177 Static Display National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Fl.

Did I miss one? (I lost count of F4Fs, I know...)

Plus:
SBD-3 SBD-3 10694 – In Store Courtesy Aircraft, Rockford, III.

SBD-4 SBD-4 10828 2468 NZ5024 In Store Greg Morris, Kansas

SBD-5 unknown 10715 Under Restoration Planes of Fame Air Museum, Eden Prairie, Mn.

The info I've got says Bu 06853 for what WRG lists as 06953 - which is the wreck held by the RNZAF Museum. It wasn't on show when I visited this Easter - is it in store or elsewhere?

What's the state of play with the Lone Star museum's example (42-546829) in its repairs to airworthy condition?

Steve S · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:37 am

As far as I know the LSFM SBD is airworthy but not on the flying rotation this year. Insurance costs limit the number of flyers each year.

Steve

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2940

JDK wrote:

Hi all,
SBD-5 unknown 10715 Under Restoration Planes of Fame Air Museum, Eden Prairie, Mn.[/i]

This aircraft has been restored to static and is on display at the Palm Springs Air Museum in Kahleeforneea

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:18 am

Warbirdnerd wrote:

JDK wrote:

Hi all,
SBD-5 unknown 10715 Under Restoration Planes of Fame Air Museum, Eden Prairie, Mn.[/i]

This aircraft has been restored to static and is on display at the Palm Springs Air Museum in Kahleeforneea

(Can't find Kahleeforneea in Google. Is that anywhere near Tex-ass or Organ?

)

Many thanks. I've got that aircraft as 'Bu 36175', but a note that implies that might only be the wings of 36175, wedded to (presumably) 10715.

Steve S - thanks, that's most helpful.

Anyone know which SBD the Hawaii guys are expecting to have in the museum?

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:36 am

Ex-RNZAF Dauntlesses that are supposedly still extant include:

NZ5021 (the wreckage or parts of this were in NZ but went abroad. I believe this one may have been brought out of the jungle and spent time at Ardmore, NZ before going to the USA)

NZ5057 (the wreckage is with the RNZAF Musuem after recovery from crash site in 1987)

NZ5062 - at Chino, airworthy (?)

I had not heard that NZ5024 has survived. That's one that was sold for scrap in 1948 in NZ. How and when did it get back to the USA?

Someone on Flypast forum a few years ago told me he reckons there are half a dozen Dauntless hiden in sheds in NZ. Given that many were sold to scrap dealer J. Edwards who often sold aircraft on to farmers, there could be some truth in it. After all, look at the pristine Airspeed Oxford found in a shed in Wanganui... I wish they'd come out and show themselves if it were true.

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:45 am

Thanks Dave. The listing I'm working off seems to have some errors, a couple of confusions and is somewhat out of date. As anyone knows with this area, that doesn't make it bad! I'm offering no guarantees however.

Does the RNZAF Museum have two wrecks not on display then? NZ5037 / Bu06853 or 06953, and NZ5057, or have we got a double transposition error with a digit in each serial? Certainly looks like it...

My head hurts.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:12 am

Ther is one in the NMUSAF in Dayton as well. It is a real A-24.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:27 am

Sorry James, that was my typo, it should indeed be NZ5037. They only have the one Dauntless.

tulsaboy · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:40 am

Mustangdriver-

Is the A-24 still at NMUSAF? I know that the registry has it actually belonging to the Marine Corps museum, and I didn't know if it went back there when they opened their new facility. Any idea? I'm just partial to it because it is one of the few remaining Tulsa-built A-24 aircraft.

kevin

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:43 am

The NMUSAF have A-24B, 42-54582 listed as present.

I've not listed the SBDs or (A-24s) I've cross checked with the WRG listing, just to keep it simpler.

Thanks chaps.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:56 am

The NMUSAF had an SBD at one point, but it was traded for a real A-24. I believe the SBD that used to be in the museum is now in the Midway Airport.

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:58 am

mustangdriver wrote:

The NMUSAF had an SBD at one point, but it was traded for a real A-24. I believe the SBD that used to be in the museum is now in the Midway Airport.

That would be SBD-4 10575

Steve T · **Posted:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:58 pm

James--

Yep, when I visited Dayton in June '04 there were indeed two Dauntlesses there, an AAF-liveried one in the WWII display (in the middle of being installed there, evidently, as the wings were not attached to the rest of the airframe yet), and a Navy-liveried one in one of the storage/restoration hangars, wrapped in clear plastic and awaiting shipment elsewhere...

Hope one or two of those phantom RNZAF barn SBDs do indeed appear!

S.

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