If it had done nothing else but fight at Midway – where a handful of carrier pilots turned the tide of the Pacific war – the Douglas SBD Dauntless would be counted among the most important aircraft of the 20th century. But the SBD did more that wreck the Japanese fleet in that battle on June 4, 1942. From its conception in 1938 until late 1944 the SBD showed itself to be the most important American dive-bomber ever built.

The Dauntless in this painting is as it appeared in August 2004 at the Willow Run Michigan air show.