SBD Dauntless

The Douglas SBD Dauntless is an American carrier-based scout and dive bomber, built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, first entering United States Navy service in mid-1939 and produced from 1940 through 1944. A two-seat aircraft known for long range, good handling and a strong bomb load for its size, the Dauntless used distinctive perforated dive brakes that allowed it to descend steeply and accurately onto a target while limiting the aircraft's speed, a combination that gave it excellent diving characteristics and led American aircrews to nickname the SBD, from its own designation, Slow But Deadly. It served as the United States Navy's principal carrier-based dive bomber and scout aircraft from the middle of 1940 through the middle of 1944, and it is remembered above all for delivering the decisive bombing attacks that sank or crippled the Japanese carrier force at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, a single engagement credited with sinking more enemy shipping in the Pacific war than any other Allied bomber type achieved over the entire conflict.