AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft 1938

Aircraft hub · 1938 · Second World War

Douglas SBD Dauntless

The dive-bomber that sank four Japanese carriers at Midway in June 1942 and turned the Pacific war. No museum in the gazetteer holds one.

1938
First flight
5,936
Built
255 mph
Top speed
0
Museums
Side profile of the SBD-2 BuNo 2106, painted as Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless, US Navy BuNo 2106, the oldest surviving Dauntless and the only known survivor of the Battle of Midway, where it bombed the carrier Hiryū with Marine squadron VMSB-241 on 4 June 1942; lost in Lake Michigan in 1943, raised in 1994 and restored at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida: a two-seat carrier dive-bomber with a Wright Cyclone radial in a NACA cowl, a long greenhouse canopy, a tapered low wing with perforated split dive flaps, a tall fin and a 500 lb bomb on the centre-line crutch: Blue Gray upper surfaces over Light Gray, the blue-and-white star on the fuselage sides and wings, a white ‘6’ ahead of the fuselage star, the lower flaps lowered and twin guns raised in the rear cockpit, as photographed at Pensacola (no Dauntless is preserved in a UK museum; shape from an SBD-3 three-view drawing checked against the BuAer drawing and photographs)
Plate 116 · The Hangar

Last verified 2026-10-18 against the gazetteer Compendium. Service bases and fleets change: check before travelling.

Not on charge

Where to see the Douglas SBD Dauntless in the UK

Survivors are in the United States, several of them raised from Lake Michigan, where they were lost during carrier training; the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola holds the most. None is in a UK museum.

3D model

The SBD-2 BuNo 2106 in 3D

A procedural model built in Blender from the type’s published dimensions, painted as Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless, US Navy BuNo 2106, the oldest surviving Dauntless and the only known survivor of the Battle of Midway, where it bombed the carrier Hiryū with Marine squadron VMSB-241 on 4 June 1942; lost in Lake Michigan in 1943, raised in 1994 and restored at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida: a two-seat carrier dive-bomber with a Wright Cyclone radial in a NACA cowl, a long greenhouse canopy, a tapered low wing with perforated split dive flaps, a tall fin and a 500 lb bomb on the centre-line crutch: Blue Gray upper surfaces over Light Gray, the blue-and-white star on the fuselage sides and wings, a white ‘6’ ahead of the fuselage star, the lower flaps lowered and twin guns raised in the rear cockpit, as photographed at Pensacola (no Dauntless is preserved in a UK museum; shape from an SBD-3 three-view drawing checked against the BuAer drawing and photographs). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · all 312 models · download .glb (1.5 MB) · Plate 116 in The Hangar

Type notes

The Douglas SBD Dauntless in brief

TypeDouglas SBD Dauntless (SBD-3 & SBD-5)
UK museums holding oneNone