Warbird Information Exchange

I'm finally reading George Gay's book "Sole Survivor" and it's pretty good. He says in there that at the time he wrote this (1978 or '79 or so) there were NO Douglas TBD-1 Devastators left; or parts or pieces, for that matter. Is this still the case? Or has anything turned up in the intervening time?

Dave

Three under water; two near Jaluit in the Pacific and one off the Atlantic coast. (Too bad there aren't any in Lake Michigan!)

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Dave,

There are three survivors, all under water. One is off the coast of Florida & has been the subject of several court battles between the USN & Doug Champlain. Though he won one court cases, it doesn't look good for the recovery of that one. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8872410

The other two are in a lagoon at Jaluit in the Marshall Islands. These two were off the Yorktown & were lost in Feb 42. Both of these are in good shape & could be restored. You can check out TIGHAR's site http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Devastator/tosave.htm for some good photos of these two.

Hopefully something can be worked out to get at least one of the Jaluit planes recovered.

Mac

Second link is very interesting. I hope that this plane will be rescued one day.

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Thanks, guys! At least there's some hope that we'll see one of these in person at some point.

Dave

You would think that the Navy at least would want the "only one" at Pensacola...

What are the possibilities that someone will eventually make an airworthy replica of a TBD? It seems with all the interest in making Axis WWII replicas (Me-262, FW-190, Oscar), someone will eventually start making Allied ones. The TBD is as good a place as any to start...no finer tribute to the men who sacrificed themselves to hold the line until more and better weaponry became available.

...and once the get the TBD done, how about a Martin Maryland or Baltimore?

It could happen IF a TBD ever gets released from the Navy. Since every single known extant example is in the ocean, the Navy has ultimate authority, by law, over all those airframes regardless of where in the world's oceans they are. At this point, the Navy is on record as wanting the airplanes to remain where they are, instead of recovering them. So, the Navy or more appropriately the NHC (Naval Historical Center) is in the driver's seat regarding the future of the TBD. At this point, it seems highly unlikely that will ever happen.

Regarding the Maryland or Baltimore, I don't believe any substantial pieces are in existence. So, no airplanes or large pieces means no replicas. I don't know if the blueprints for those airplanes are around, but it would be a MAMMOTH, project. It would easily cost many, many millions of dollars to make one from scratch. That project is so daunting, I don't think even Paul Allen would touch that with a 10 foot pole.

So, it looks unlikely for any replicas to emerge, unless a previously unknown example or crash site gets discovered.

Another problem besides no example to reverse engineer or make patterns off of is that as far as I know there are no blueprints available. Lynn might be able to correct me on that, but I know for a fact that NASM doesn't hold any blueprints or manuals.

Mac