SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber at San Diego Aerospace Museum
This is the primary type of plane Dad worked on to install and repair radar equipment. The radar antenna, notably absent here, hung down near each wingtip and both could be rotated to fix a bearing on the target. The type of antenna used by the radar was called “yagi,” named, ironically, after the Japanese who invented it.
Note also the radio antenna mast in front of the cockpit, and the antenna wire that trails back and is affixed to the tail. Behind the pilot was sat the gunner, and you can just make out the twin .30 calibre machine guns.
There is another unusual feature here that sticks out like a sore thumb, namely the perforated, split dive flaps. They are the red panels full of holes on the rear edges of the wings. The pilot used those to slow the plane’s airspeed to begin the dive bombing run.Â
Most, if not all, the dive bombers in DeLand, Florida, where my dad was stationed, had been removed from combat and were used only for training. That didn’t mean there weren’t hazards, though. Dad had to stand guard once in the swamp where a pilot and his gunner were killed when the pilot was unable to pull out of his dive. The bodies had already been removed, but the classified radar equipment was still with the plane. Curious thing, though — they didn’t give him a gun. The part that seemed to be most vivid in his memory, however, when he recounted the story to me was that he and the other fellow guarding the plane were dying for a cigarette.
