My apologies

[Pursuivant]

Some SBD-3 had a field mod that allowed it to carry a 58 gallon drop tank on its left wing.

SBD-5 had the inherent capacity to carry drop tanks instead of a bomb load on the wings.

Later marks of SBD-5 also carried ASB radar, operated by the gunner.

Apparently, there were a number of field mods to the SBD-5, although I haven't yet found pictures of them.

"Racks carrying multiple small bombs were fitted to the two wing bomb racks for ground attacks. Later provision for carrying a 1,600 lb. armor-piercing bomb on the center rack were qualified, though not for catapulting. [That is, this load was approved for take-off and landing on a carrier, but without catapult assisted take off] Pods carrying twin .50 guns were developed to be carried on the wing bomb racks, though infrequently used in combat. More often used were rockets mounted on underwing racks installed between the bomb racks and the radar antennas."

http://www.history.navy.mil/content/...pdfs/sbd-5.pdf

Picture of FFAR rockets mounted on SBD-5:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...FAR_on_SBD.png

[Pursuivant]

If TD is interested in further development of radar, or wants to get heavily into surface radar, here's more info about the ASB radar on the SBD-5:

"Speaking of new equipment, I remember the first radar we had installed on the SBDs while we were in Newfoundland. This was most primitive by current standards. We had two Yagi antennas mounted under each wing tip. We could rotate these antennas with a mechanical control lever from straight forward to 90 degrees to the port and starboard. The indicator was a cathode ray tube with a vertical baseline up the middle. The baseline was fuzzy on either side, which we called "grass." When the radar beam received a return echo from a ship, or other reflecting surface, a "blip" would appear along the baseline. The further the blip was up the baseline, the further away the ship was. Thus, we could measure the distance to the target along the vertical line. Not very sophisticated, but it worked."

http://www.airgroup4.com/edens.htm

[Buster_Dee]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

If TD is interested in further development of radar, or wants to get heavily into surface radar, here's more info about the ASB radar on the SBD-5:

"Speaking of new equipment, I remember the first radar we had installed on the SBDs while we were in Newfoundland. This was most primitive by current standards. We had two Yagi antennas mounted under each wing tip. We could rotate these antennas with a mechanical control lever from straight forward to 90 degrees to the port and starboard. The indicator was a cathode ray tube with a vertical baseline up the middle. The baseline was fuzzy on either side, which we called "grass." When the radar beam received a return echo from a ship, or other reflecting surface, a "blip" would appear along the baseline. The further the blip was up the baseline, the further away the ship was. Thus, we could measure the distance to the target along the vertical line. Not very sophisticated, but it worked."

http://www.airgroup4.com/edens.htm

Any cockpit photos? I like my radars.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Buster_Dee

Any cockpit photos? I like my radars.

Nope. I'm sure they're out there I just haven't found anything yet.

Edit: Best I could do is a picture of a hyperscale model rear cockpit. Note the socket for the stick & the rudder pedals for the rear cockpit.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...psgmnb0mic.jpg

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...psgmnb0mic.jpg


There are pictures of the unmounted radar set itself.

http://www.smecc.org/asb-5_airborne_radar.htm

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...nger-asb-radar

Note that the US ABD radar was also installed on the TBF Avenger, and possibly other US Navy planes. so modeling the ABD system might benefit a number of planes.

If you haven't seen it yet, these transcribed manuals look promising for general details about various US radars:

http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/....html#contents

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...RADTWOA-2.html


Report on use the ABD radar for navigation:

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Air...Summary19.html


I also just learned that the gunner could fly the Dauntless from his position!

While forward visibility was probably pretty bad, making it unlikely that the gunner could land the plane, the gunner had rudder pedals, a detachable stick which could be fitted into place, and a more or less full set of instruments!

Operationally, this feature was mostly used to allow the gunner to keep track of altitude as the plane dived during dive bombing attacks, or to help keep the plane flying straight and level if the pilot was concentrating on some other task. (Of course, air gunners weren't trained pilots!)

https://books.google.com/books?id=d0...ontrol&f=false


Absolutely nothing to do with the SBD, but this report looks like it could be very useful for modeling just about any sort of Japanese radio, radar or MAD equipment. Too good to let go without a link:

http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/prima...USNTMJ_toc.htm