Restoration Updates

Having drilled out the attaching rivets, Craig Cunha (left) and Stephen Fox (right) begin lifting the trailing edge spar (No.5) from the SBD’s wing center section. (image via Pioneer Aero Ltd.) Spar Removal: Recently, Pioneer Aero’s engineers successfully trial-fitted the newly-manufactured wing center section skins which mate up with the rear spar (Spar No.5) on…

Trial-fitting newly-manufactured skins for the SBD’s wing center section to the flap bay and the lower trailing edge. (image via Pioneer Aero Ltd.) Wing Center Section Progress: In recent months, the team at Pioneer Aero Ltd. has progressively removed skin panels from the SBD’s wing center section. They began with the panel covering the flap…

An image of the Museum’s Dauntless during its recovery in September 1994. Note the severely crushed wing leading edges. (image via A&T Recovery) Center Section Wing Leading Edges: Back in October 2023, the team at Pioneer Aero Ltd. began rebuilding the wing leading edges for the SBD’s center section. As the image above reveals, this…

A view of the SBD’s wing center section from December 2023 showing the skin panel between Spar Web Nos.2 & 3 still in place. This is the panel assembly immediately beneath the rearmost panel, already removed in this image. Spar-web No.2 spans the airframe just above the wheel wells visible at the bottom of this…

The fin’s leading edge, primer painted and riveted together, is trial-fitted to the fuselage to ensure its proper alignment . (image via Pioneer Aero Ltd.) Fin Reassembly Continues: SBD Update No.29 from February described Pioneer Aero engineer William Lowen’s efforts rebuilding the aircraft’s tail fin. Using refurbished parts he had salvaged from both B-22 (BuNo.36175)…

An interior view of the SBD’s “anti-drag cowling” assembly as depicted in Section 15, page 6 of the U.S. Army Air Corps Airplane Parts Catalog for the A-24 Banshee (a U.S. Army Air Forces variant of the Dauntless dive bomber). Fitting the Fittings: Following on from February’s article regarding progress with the SBD’s anti-drag/engine cowlings,…

An image from the SBD’s Illustrated Parts Manual showing the internal, trailing-edge structure for the SBD’s wing center section. The flap bay is at the far left, showing the rear bulkhead and ribs. Flap Bay Repairs: Back in January, the team at Pioneer Aero Ltd. removed the flap bay structure from the trailing edge of…

An image from the SBD’s Illustrated Parts Manual which shows the right side of the aircraft’s lower fuselage. The wing root fairings include the skin panels 3/4, 29/30, 7/8 and 11/12, with the odd numbers representing the parts for the left side of the fuselage, while the even numbers represent their complements on the right…

A wartime image of a Douglas SBD Dauntless with its dive flaps deployed while dropping its weapon circa 1942. (image via Wikimedia) SBD Dive Flaps: One of the SBD’s defining features is its set of perforated flaps which runs along the entire wing trailing edge between each aileron. When fully deployed, these flaps were critical…

Back in late 2022, during the period where Pioneer Aero awaited the arrival of our SBD’s fuselage, the restoration team made good use of its time by working on items from the previously supplied parts cache. The empenage control surfaces were amongst those components attended to, with the rudder being completed first (as reported HERE)….