Introduction

1/48 USMC SBD-1 Dauntless “Pearl Harbor”

Academy 12331

Excludes all glues, paints and tools necessary to assemble.

The Douglas SBD 5 Dauntless was an American, on-board low-wing dive bomber with a landing gear retracted in flight in the classic configuration from the Second World War. About 3,000 aircraft of this type were built during the production process. The drive was provided by a single 1200 HP Wright Cyclone R-1820-60 engine. The length of the aircraft was 10.09 meters with a wingspan of 12.66 meters. The deck armament consisted of four 7.62 mm and 12.7 mm machine guns. The machine could also carry a load of bombs weighing up to 1020 kilograms.

The Douglas SBD 5 Dauntless aircraft was a development of the previous machine from the SBD series, i.e. the SBD 4, also produced by the Douglas aviation plant. The main change was to use a clearly more powerful engine and to increase the mechanical strength of the entire structure. This, in turn, had a positive effect on the performance of the machine. These planes served primarily in the US Navy in the Pacific War, where – along with other versions of the SBD Dauntless aircraft until 1944 – they were one of the main elements of the American on-board aviation. A small batch of them was transferred to Great Britain and New Zealand.