Douglas SB2D/BTD Destroyer

[Vahe Demirjian]

While the Douglas SBD Dauntless was Ed Heinemann's finest WW2 product, helping seal the Japanese defeat at Midway in June 1942, it is quite noteworthy that Douglas came close to achieving mass production with a successor to the SBD Dauntless, the SB2D/BTD Destroyer. The Destroyer originally was built as a new-generation dive bomber, but by the time of D-Day, the requirements changed insofar that the Destroyer had evolved into a single-seat aircraft combining the strengths of a dive bomber and torpedo-bomber, being re-designated BTD. In all, 30 Destroyers were built, but no BTDs ever saw action. Fortunately, one BTD Destroyer is still in existence, now on display at the Hixson Flight Museum in Rome, Georgia.

 

[RCAFson]

Didn't that evolve into the Skyraider?

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

Didn't that evolve into the Skyraider?

In some ways, yes, because Ed Heinemann believed the BTD Destroyer to be a stopgap measure to his forthcoming Skyraider design (see Able Dog: Was the AD Skyraider the Best Attack Bomber Ever Built?). The Skyraider was the same length as the Destroyer but had a slightly bigger wingspan.