The US Navy placed a contract with DouglasAircraft Company for the development ofthe TBD torpedo bomber in 1934, which was to be a technological jump in carrier aviation in a period where naval aviation was dominated by biplanes on carrier decks. This would soon change. The TBD Devastator’s first flight was on 15th April 1935. Subsequently Douglas quickly delivered a prototype to Anacostia US Naval Air Station for the evaluation and performance trials. The prototype performed well with only a slight alteration to enlarge the canopy to increase visibility. The US Navy BuAir placed an order on 3rd February 1936 for 114 TBD-1s. The first production aircraft was evaluated for testing purposes and was modified as the type's only seaplane variant when it was fitted with floats as the TBD-1A. The TBD was powered by the 850 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 Twin Wasp radial engine.
The TBD-1 entered service for the US Navy in the autumn of 1937 when it was deployed on the USS Saratoga in Squadron VT-3, which began the transition of TBDs from the T4M/TG-2 biplane torpedo bombers. This was epoch changing and witnessed an end of the biplane era. The TBD airframe represented some of the most dramatic changes in naval aviation technology with the first all metal naval aircraft with semi retractable undercarriage, fully enclosed cockpit and of course monoplane construction and the main offensive armament was the Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 aerial torpedo, which weighed nearly a ton (1,935lb/878kg). Alternatively the Devastator could carry a single 1,000lb (450kg) bomb semi recessed in the fuselage bomb bay or it could carry three 500lb (230kg) general purpose bombs on each wing root and one inside the bomb bay. Finally the last offensive armament option was twelve 100lb (45kg) fragmentation bombs with six under each wing root. The TBD carried for defensive armament one forward firing 0.30 calibre or 0.50 calibre machine gun and one 0.30 calibre machine gun in the rear cockpit (later increased to two).
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