Three "Civilian" Dive Bombers ...

[Mark Allen M]

According to aircraft historians Dan Hagedorn and John Davis. BuAer 54532, a Navy SBD-5 produced in El Segundo and accepted into Navy inventory on March 3, 1944. 54532 was delivered to the US Navy in April of 1944, and in August of 1944 was assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics General Representative in Los Angeles where it was likely used as a personal transport aircraft until June of 1945 when it was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics Representative (BAR) in Baltimore. It was assigned to the BAR Baltimore until December of 1946 when it went into the pool at NAS Norfolk. There is no evidence that this particular specimen made its way aboard a U. S. Navy carrier and it was stricken from Navy inventory on February 8, 1947 as “transferred to another agency”. The “other agency” turned out to be the War Assets Administration (WAA), and when the Dauntless was registered in 1947 as NL1339V, later N1339V, the construction number was given as 6046, the SBD-5, BuAer 54532.

N1339V was registered to Andy Stinis of the Skywriting Corporation of America. Interviews with Stinis’ relatives indicate the Dauntless was initially purchased to be a high altitude Skywriter, but as the fuel consumption was more than double that of Skywriting’s AT-6’s, the airplane was sold. N1339V was sold to CIA Mexicana Aerofoto on October 18, 1951 and six days later the US registration was cancelled as ‘exported to Mexico’. Mexicana Aerofoto registered the Dauntless as XB-QUC. From 1951 to 1966, the Dauntless racked up hundreds of thousands of miles flying as an aerial photo ship for CIA Mexicana Aerophoto. Flying with the company founded by Luis Struck, the pioneer of aerial photography in Mexico, the Dauntless was one of the aircraft Struck used to take countless photos for Pemex, the Mexican Oil Company, the Mexican Electricity Commission and even the U. S. Department of Agriculture in a study of the Mississippi Delta. After operating for many years with Mexicana Aerophoto, on January 11, 1966 the Dauntless was sold for $1600.00 to Ed Maloney of the Movie World Planes of Fame Museum, who displayed the SBD in his museum from 1966 until he sold it on March 4, 1971 to the very colorful Robert Griffin, one of the Confederate Air Force’s early donors who nicknamed the Dauntless “Speedy D”. Griffin, of San Antonio, was one of the CAF’s first Dauntless pilots and he is responsible for purchasing and donating not only the Dauntless, but the SB2C “Helldiver” and the FM-2 “Wildcat” which are currently in the CAF fleet.
Source: https://docplayer.net/54452172-Caf-doug ... 54532.html



Douglas A-24B, sn 17621, NL9449H. As recently as July 2011, this Banshee was owned by Seaboard and Western Airlines.


SB2U-1 “Vindicator” NC30447 war surplus.

[Lon Moer]

Cool stuff!

Civilitary Warbirds and early Confederate history.

[mexchiwa]

Love it - had no idea there was a civilian Vindicator.

Anyone have any idea about the possible colors of any of these?

[Michel Lemieux]

Could the Vindicator be pre-war?

[mexchiwa]

Apparently it was a testbed for P & W until 1951

https://www.scalemates.com/products/img ... ctions.pdf

It also seems to have a blown canopy

[Chris Brame]

One of my Air Classics magazines from the '70s (on the "Odds and Mods" page, IIRC) has a photo of that Vindicator parked next to the prototype Vultee XA-41, which P&W also used as an engine test bed. The caption mentioned that the old Vought was offered up as a potential museum piece, but there were no takers so it and the Vultee were scrapped in 1951. Luckily, Lake Michigan turned up another one several decades later...

[Chris Brame]

Sorry - double post.