Captured 4/4/09, at the semibeautiful Chino Planes of Fame Museum in the semibeautiful Chino Airport in semibeautiful Chino, California. Well now, back to the wonderful world of aircraft and folded wings. This Avenger was in the process of repair/maintenance when these shots were taken. In fact, many of the planes in the hangers were undergoing maintenance or repair at that time, which didn't make for ideal photographic opportunities, but at least it'll keep them flying. Better viewed full size. For the aviation connoisseurs: The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) was a torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air or naval arms around the world. It entered U.S. service in 1942, and first saw action during the Battle of Midway. Douglas' TBD Devastator, the U.S. Navy's main torpedo bomber introduced in 1935, was obsolete by 1939. Bids were accepted from several companies but Grumman's TBF design was selected as the TBD's replacement. Designed by Leroy Grumman, its first prototype was called the XTBF-1. Although one of the first two prototypes crashed near Brentwood, New York, rapid production continued. Grumman's first torpedo bomber was the heaviest single-engine aircraft of World War II, and it was the first design to feature a new wing-folding mechanism created by Grumman, intended to maximize storage space on an aircraft carrier; the F4F-4 and later models of Wildcat received a similar folding wing and the F6F Hellcat (both designed by Grumman) would employ this mechanism as well. The engine used was the Wright R-2600-20 (which produced 1,900 hp/1,417 kW). There were three crew members: pilot, turret gunner and radioman/bombardier/ventral gunner. During the Battle of Midway, all of the three aircraft carriers' torpedo groups (from the USS Hornet (CV-8), USS Enterprise (CV-6), and USS Yorktown (CV-5)) had taken horrendous casualties; one group had a single survivor (Ensign George Gay). This was partly due to the slow speed of the Devastator (less than 200 mph/320 km/h) during glide-bombing) and its weak defensive armament. Ironically, the first shipment of TBFs had arrived only a few hours after the three carriers quickly departed from Pearl Harbor (although six eventually participated, operating from Midway Island, with five being shot down and the other returning heavily damaged, with one of its two gunners killed) Performance * Maximum speed: 276 mph (444 km/h) * Range: 1,000 mi (1,610 km) * Service ceiling: 30,100 ft (9,170 m) * Rate of climb: 2,060 ft/min (10.5 m/s) Armament * Guns: o One 0.30 in (7.62 mm) nose-mounted M1919 Browning machine gun(on early models) o Two 0.50 in (12.7 mm) wing-mounted M2 Browning machine guns o One 0.50 in (12.7 mm) dorsal-mounted M2 Browning machine gun o One 0.30 in (7.62 mm) ventral-mounted M1919 Browning machine gun * Bombs: o Up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs or o One 2,000 lb bomb Source: Wikipedia encyclopedia Tallyho, and toodles.