A Dauntless to be Restored!

Great news!

An SBD-5 Dauntless, which was located and brought back to the surface by A and T Recovery, is now set for a restoration effort by the Military Aviation Museum.

Military Aviation Museum Welcomes Douglas SBD Dauntless to Aircraft Collection The Dauntless will be on temporary exhibit in its pre-restoration condition March 1st until March 31st at the Military Aviation Museum as part of regular Museum admission.

The Military Aviation Museum is pleased to announce that the most recent addition to the collection in Virginia Beach is a Douglas SBD Dauntless. This particular Dauntless, BuNo 36175, was recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan where it was lost during a training exercise in 1944. The aircraft, which was located in 177 feet of water and brought to surface by A and T Recovery, is a time capsule that tells the story of the Naval Aviators’ training on the Great Lakes, as well as connecting us with the broader story of World War II in the Pacific.

Introduced in 1940, the Dauntless was developed as a scout bomber, hence its SBD designation (Scout Bomber – Douglas). Flown by squadrons of US Navy and US Marine Corps pilots from land bases as well as aircraft carriers, the Dauntless was the principal American dive bomber through much of the war, being replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver in mid-1944.

During the World War II decisive Battle of Midway, in June 1942, Dauntlesses delivered fatal blows to all four Japanese fleet carriers which were present. The Akagi, Kaga and Sōryū were hit and disabled within the span of a short but hellish 6 minutes. The Hiryū would be disabled later in the same day. Our SBD-5 was Bureau Number (BuNo) 36175 and was accepted for Navy service on 04 October 1943. We are able to follow the aircraft’s journey through Navy records that track its wartime service. BuNo 36175 was transferred quickly into a training role to support new pilots receiving their initial carrier qualifications.

On 20 January 1944, the aircraft met with the mishap that would see it preserved for 50 years on the bottom of Lake Michigan. Lieutenant Charles L. Ford III was attempting a qualification landing on the training carrier USS Wolverine. He was too slow on his approach and was given “come on” signals by the Landing Signals Officer; when he was issued a subsequent “wave-off” command, the pilot banked away from the carrier with too little power, leading to a crash. According to the Navy accident report, the airplane hit the water at a near vertical angle with a lean toward its back. Lt. Ford was lucky to survive with only a few deep cuts to his forehead. Our Dauntless is being placed on display for a limited time largely as it was recovered from Lake Michigan, to provide people the opportunity to see an important artifact in its unexpectedly excellent pre-restoration condition. Aircraft restorations are extensive, multi-year projects but this exhibit provides the public a rare opportunity to see the “before” state for themselves, alongside a number of our other World War II US Navy aircraft that have been fully restored.