Does anyone know if there is a kit available of a TBD-1 Devastator? Thanks.

Randy

Randy,

Go to http://www.fly-imaa.org/imaa/IMAAads...miscplans.html for your TBD plans. They are offered in two sizes, 58" and 81.25" wingspans. I don't know if cowls or canopies are available but a phone call would answer that question.

I've always liked the looks of the Devastator and its involvement in the early stages of WWII combined with the courage of the crews who flew it make it a warbird with character. This would be a fabulous scale subject! Good luck.

Al

Thanks for the link, I'll have to contact them after the holiday.

Here is some history on the TBD Devastator for anyone who might be interseted.

When it first entered service in 1937 it was one of the most advanced planes in the world. By 1942 it was obsolete.

"In the early days of the Pacific war the TBD acquitted itself well during February and March 1942 and in the Battle of the Coral Sea, in which Devastators helped sink the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho.

Problems were being discovered with the Mark XIII torpedo at this point. Many were seen to hit the target yet fail to explode; it took over a year for the problems to be corrected, including a tendency to run deeper than the set depth.

These problems were not corrected by the time of the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Forty-one Devastators were launched from USS Hornet, USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown to attack the Japanese fleet. Their fighter escort lost contact, and the TBDs started their attacks without protection from the American fighters. Torpedo delivery requires a long, straight-line attack run, making the planes vulnerable anyway, and the slow speed of the aircraft made them sitting ducks for the Mitsubishi Zeros. One by one they fell; only four planes made it back to the Enterprise; none to the Hornet or Yorktown. Worse, not a single torpedo hit its target. However, their bloody sacrifice was not in vain; the suicidally heroic actions of the Devastator aircrews that day drew the Japanese air cover out of its high position just as the Japanese carriers were refueling and rearming their bombers; a window of opportunity mercilessly - and successfully - exploited by the late-arriving SBD Dauntless dive-bombers led by Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky.

The Navy immediately withdrew the TBD from front-line units after Midway. There were only 39 aircraft left in any case. They remained in service briefly in the Atlantic and in training squadrons until 1943. None survived the war.

In fairness to the type, the disaster of the Battle of Midway was as much due to the vulnerability of torpedo bombers against AAA fire and defending fighters fielded by an undistracted enemy fleet. Without a fighter escort to keep off the Zeroes and distract the shipborne AAA guns, not even TBF Avengers escaped nearly as heavy losses.

There are no Devastators in any collection or museum. The only known, possibly salvageable examples are in Jaluit Lagoon in the Marshall Islands. The two TBDs from USS Yorktown were ditched during a February 1942 raid on the island. TIGHAR is currently exploring the possibility of salvaging one to donate to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. "