The Douglas SBD Dauntless was a naval dive bomber made by Douglas during World War II. The SBD was the United States Navy's main dive bomber from mid-1940 until late 1943, when it was largely replaced by the SB2C Helldiver. The aircraft was also operated by the United States Army as the A-24 Banshee.

Although relatively slow and outmoded when it began its combat career, it was rugged and dependable and sank more Japanese shipping than any other aircraft during World War II.

Source: Wikipedia, "Douglas SBD Dauntless", available under the CC-BY-SA License.

As Described In

Aces of the Pacific: The "Speedy D," or SBD Dauntless, was the Navy's standard dive bomber until 1944. Though it was slow and underarmed, the SBD was rock stable and stoutly built.

1942 Pacific Air War: The Dauntless is a workhorse, and has been all the way through the war. Even though it was designed before the U.S. got into things, and it’s probably obsolete, it does the job. The engine’s too small, so she’s underpowered, but the handling is light and responsive. The underpowered Dauntless is slow and lumbering on the take-off - her acceleration is not spectacular. The view over the nose is pretty good, though.