This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Fri Jan 01, 2021 1:01 pm
One of the unusual features of the Douglas SBD was that standard equipment included an autopilot. Some say that it was the only single-engine U. S. combat aircraft of WWII to have an autopilot. Does anyone know if this is true? (Obviously B-17s and other Norden-equipped heavy bombers had autopilots of a sort so that the bombardier could fly the airplane through the bombsight, but I'm think here of single- and twin-engine fighters and attack types, not heavy multis.)
Fri Jan 01, 2021 1:25 pm
Single engine off the top of my head...
SBD, TBM, and P-47N (maybe SB2C as well) were used in combat and had autopilots.
TBY had autopilot installed as well, but didn't make it to the combat zone by August 1945.
Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:57 am
If I recall correctly from Ted Lawson's book "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", the Doolittle B-25B's, despite having everything not required for the raid stripped out of them to save weight, retained their autopilots.
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