Warbird Information Exchange

Dear Members,



I am searching for a registration of a Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless who was crashed during a training mission on Jan.14,1944.
The plane flew from a naval air base in the Central Valley with the rest of their VB-18 Squadron.
The both crewmen were US Navy Reserve pilot Delbert C.Goodspeed,21 and Aviation Radioman 2nd Class Robert Henry Paulson,22.
The Navy did locate the crash site in 1944.
The plane was rediscoverd by a Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency work.
I have some informarion of the plane that's his BureauNumber: 28850, but I haven't his registration.
I have also looked at Warbirds-Central.com, but I found nothing about the plane.
So I hope anyone of you can help me to find these information.




With sincerely,
Abe v.d.Bijl,
The Netherlands.

Similar information to yours may be found at:

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/thirdseries3.html

_________________
Bob

Yes, I recall reading about the discovery at the time as Pajaro Dunes is about 35 miles from me. At the time they said it was a TBM Avenger but it sounds like better ID has been made since then. It was assumed that it was flying out of NAAS Watsonville (about 5 miles away from Pajaro). As you have the BuNo then what do you mean by registration number? Do you mean the Douglas construction number ?

This is, sorry, going off on a slight tangent - with regard to Joe Baugher's military serial numbers databases;

I continually research and collect as much info as I can find on every Goose Grumman every made. Of course I have made use of the Baugher site, Eddy Haynes' Goose Central, and the Catalina seaplanes site. It seemed to me, when interpolating from known serial numbers, that a lot of the specific aircraft histories were off by just 1 serial number or conversely that a lot of the military serial numbers listed there were off by 1 number from the listed corresponding mfg serials.

Has anyone else ever noticed something like that when researching other old warbirds via the Braugher site?

Yes, although it is undoubtedly a great resource with much potential, Baugher's site contains many errors. He is perhaps a victim of his own success in that he undoubtedly does not have the time to cross-check the information he is receiving.
Andy Marden