50% Vindicator White Star
This is last of my Vindicator color schemes, in the “official” post May 1942 Navy colors…blue-gray, white stars, no rudder stripes…
Not many survived in service long enough to wear this color scheme. Obsolete at the outbreak of the war, by late 1942 the few remaining Vindy’s were relegated to “advanced” scout bomber training units Stateside, and flown till they were completely worn out, crashed or scrapped. Not one single SB2U survived the war intact.
The only remaining Vindicator today is an SB2U-2, at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola Florida. Her last flight was in June 1943, when she was ditched into Lake Michigan during a training mission…Raised from 130 feet of water in the 1990's, she has been restored and is on display in the West Wing of the museum…..the last proud member of a nearly forgotten time, doggedly holding the line back when American “air superiority” was not a given thing.
As always, thanks to Brent G for the original EA
This is last of my Vindicator color schemes, in the “official” post May 1942 Navy colors…blue-gray, white stars, no rudder stripes…
Not many survived in service long enough to wear this color scheme. Obsolete at the outbreak of the war, by late 1942 the few remaining Vindy’s were relegated to “advanced” scout bomber training units Stateside, and flown till they were completely worn out, crashed or scrapped. Not one single SB2U survived the war intact.
The only remaining Vindicator today is an SB2U-2, at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola Florida. Her last flight was in June 1943, when she was ditched into Lake Michigan during a training mission…Raised from 130 feet of water in the 1990's, she has been restored and is on display in the West Wing of the museum…..the last proud member of a nearly forgotten time, doggedly holding the line back when American “air superiority” was not a given thing.
As always, thanks to Brent G for the original EA
