Very nice work.
One question about the TBD. Wasn't the torpedo semi-enclosed. IIRC, it stuck out from the belly of the airplane, only the first 18"-24" were exposed.
Yes, the torpedo was semi-enclosed, about the upper quarter to half of the back half as you moved aft, slung at about a 10 degree angle to the line of thrust. There was also some sort of fairing for a portion forward where it cleared the fuselage. My resources have been most lacking as to the torpedo well/fairing and bomb racks, very few pictures out there available (And I would like to thank Micdrow again for the one he provided me, clearest shot of the of a loaded torpedo that I've seen.) It's been a real hanging point for me in the process. One of these days I'll get my hands a copy of the erection and maintenance manual or some proper blue prints and hopefully get a better understanding of it all.
I don't want to hurt your feelings but the devastator was outdated when it was made
Hurt my feelings?...Naw, everyone is entitled to their opinion, however misinformed they are.
The TBD was state of the art for her time, incorporating many innovations and firsts for the USN. Sure, by the time the US muddled into the war she was past her prime, as was a lot of the equipment on all sides. You go in with what ya got. Aviation technology was growing by leaps and bounds and overly specialized aircraft were often left in the dust. Even her replacement, the TBF Avenger, would not be asked to perform missions under similar circumstances as Midway, where her record was nearly as poor as the TBD's. The mission changed as the tactics were better understood, they would seldom again carry torpedoes as they just had to fly too slow and low to press the attack, leaving no room for evasion of hostile fire and aircraft.
Of course, the mk XIII torpedoes that they were carrying did little to help, being notoriously unreliable, often failing to explode on striking a target or just plain running too deep because the War Department was more concerned with expenditures than in live testing, only ever testing them with dummy warheads that weighed differently than live ones. And then continued to deny that there even was a problem long after battlefield reports started coming in.
Don't get me wrong, I've no great personal love of this particular A/C, but more an interest of the men who took her to battle, green and knowing that the odds were stacked against them.
There are no surviving Devastators, the last was scrapped in 1944. I just don't think that a piece that was pivotal in forming US Naval doctrine (rightly or wrongly) for the next six decades should go forgotten and/ or maligned when tactics and bureaucracy are more to blame when the shortcomings of he A/C were well known.
The qoute below says it all to me. They were talking about the fact that neither of them had ever taken off with a torpedo loaded before. "I'll do my best, buddy, if I go into the drink she's too heavy so you ask for more speed to get more wind over the deck."