Grumman TBF Avenger

They raised Dauntlesses.

They raised Grumman TBF Avengers.

At least one Grumman F4F Wildcat.

Other types as well.

So, so very special.

And then, like, right now at Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport, we have a TBM Avenger that's visiting.

Greg Collier, who flies a T-33 every year at the airshow, I think he's been here all the years, too.

Um, he also brought a TBM Avenger, which is a torpedo bomber.

And it's the same, uh, type of aircraft that, uh, President, uh, George Bush 41, the first George Bush, he flew those in World War II and was actually shot down in one.

Yeah.

And that'll be on the beach.

He'll be flying with the B-25 today.

The sky belonged to the United States Navy, and Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale was buzzing with young men learning the ropes.

Then at two ten in the afternoon, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers lined up on the runway.

Now, you got to understand what an Avenger was.

They called them the ironclads of the sky.

Behind them, dive bombers.

And behind them, a formation of big, barrel-bellied Grumman Avengers.

Torpedo bombers, lining up on the narrow channels through the reef.

Except, those Avengers are not carrying torpedoes this morning.

A recovered Lake Michigan wildcat with original wear and original finish tells you what this wildcat was.

There's a TBM Avenger in Pensacola that came up from the lake.

And when you stand under it and understand what it is, it is one of the more affecting moments you can have in any aviation museum.

That aircraft flew over freshwater.

The lack of a distress signal and any sign of its location further adds to the mystery.

Then at 2:00 PM on December 5th, 1945, Lieutenant Charles C. Taylor led a team of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers on a navigational training flight from the US Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Lieutenant Taylor was an experienced naval aviator who had flown extensively during World War II.

The group of planes known as Flight 19 had been assigned navigation problem number one, which involved flying east from the Florida coast, conducting bombing runs at Hens and Chickens Shoals, turning north, flying over Grand Bahama Island, and then returning to NAS Fort Lauderdale.

They were not Wildcats.

They were Grumman TBF Avengers.

Torpedo bombers.

Big, thick, purpose-built torpedo bombers with a crew of three.

When the first aircraft dropped below roughly 10 gallons of fuel, they would go down together.

It was a coordinated ditching plan for five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers carrying 14 men.

None of the aircraft returned to Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.

No confirmed wreckage from Flight 19 has ever been recovered.

The United States had emerged from World War II only months earlier.

Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, on Florida's southeast coast, remained a major training base for carrier aviation.

The five aircraft assigned to Flight 19 were TBM Avengers, large single-engine bombers built for naval service.

During the war, Avengers had been used in combat as torpedo bombers and patrol aircraft.