Original Item: Only One Available. Now this is a very interesting piece of history here! It is the bomb release mechanism for a Douglas TBD Devastator, an American torpedo bomber used by the United States Navy during WWII. First ordered in 1934, it first flew in 1935 and entered service in 1937. At that point, it was the most advanced aircraft flying for the Navy and possibly for any navy in the world. However, the fast pace of aircraft development quickly caught up with it, and by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the TBD was already outdated.
 
The Devastator performed well in early battles, most notably in the Battle of Coral Sea, but earned notoriety for a catastrophic performance during the Battle of Midway in which 41 Devastators recorded zero torpedo hits with only six surviving to return to their carriers. Vastly outclassed in both speed and maneuverability by the Mitsubishi Zero fighters they faced, most of the force was wiped out with little consequence except to distract the Zeros from the SBD Dauntless dive bombers that sank four carriers and a heavy cruiser. Although much of the Devastator's dismal performance was later attributed to the many well-documented defects in the US Mark 13 torpedo, the aircraft was withdrawn from frontline service after Midway, being replaced by the Grumman TBF Avenger.
 
The Mk 29 Bomb Release Assembly was used in multiple aircrafts at the time but we have only been able to narrow it downto two, and of those two we were only able to find pictures of the Mk 29 being utilized in a TBD Devastator. The other aircraft these were used in was the TBF Avenger, another torpedo bomber manufactured by General Motors during WWII, initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval aviation services around the world.
 
Photos of the bombardier’s station aboard a TBD Devastator (facing forward right) can be found at the following link.
 
While designed as a torpedo bomber, the Devastator could also act as a level bomber.  Mounted just to the left of the photo in the link, was the same Norden bombsight so famously associated with Army bombers like the B-17. In actuality, the sight was developed for the Navy in 1931 under a dedicated source contract. As such, the Army actually had to buy its bombsights from the Navy. When war broke out, the Navy refused to allow the construction of a separate Norden factory for Army production, and for a time, it appeared that the Army would have to supplement its few Nordens with sights made by Sperry Gyroscope.  However, Naval attempts to use the Norden during the Guadalcanal campaign (August 1942 – February 1943) proved fruitless, and full production for bombsights was begrudgingly transferred to the Army in 1943.
 
The set-up in the Devastator pictured in the link is worth noting. The Devastator was a poorly-powered aircraft and could only carry 1,200 lbs of bombs. Generally this meant either a single 1,000 lb bomb in the bay, or a single 500 lb in the bay with two more mounted externally. Since the bay-mounted bomb could not be dropped until the external ones were released, due to the Devestator lacking wing racks, additional Mk. 29 mechanisms ensured each bomb can be dropped individually.
 
The assembly is approximately 7 ½” long and stands approximately 4 ½” high and 2” wide. Everything appears to function properly and doesn’t have any noticeable damage. We do not know which aircraft this came out of, or if it was even installed into one. There are numbers visible on the bottom: 147599-10T and numbers also visible on the side of the safety lever: 147599-11T.   
 
This is truly a wonderful example of a piece of aircraft equipment that was very important on these torpedo bombers. Without these assemblies the aircraft would not be able to do its job!
 
Comes ready to display!
 
The Douglas XTBD-1 was ordered on 30 June 1934 after being one of the winners of a US Navy competition for new bombers to operate from its aircraft carriers. Other aircraft also ordered for production as a result of the competition included the Brewster SBA, the Vought SB2U Vindicator, and the Northrop BT-1, the last of which would evolve into the Douglas SBD Dauntless. The Great Lakes XB2G, Great Lakes XTBG, Grumman XSBF, Hall XPTBH and Vought XSB3U were also tendered to the specification but were not developed beyond prototype status.
 
The XTBD Devastator flew for the first time on 15 April 1935 while marking a number of "firsts" for the US Navy. It was the first American carrier-based monoplane to be widely used, the first all-metal naval aircraft, the first with a completely enclosed cockpit, the first with power-actuated (hydraulically) folding wings. A semi-retractable landing gear was fitted, with the wheels protruding 10 in (250 mm) below the wings to potentially limit damage to the aircraft in a "wheels-up" landing. A crew of three was normally carried beneath a large "greenhouse" canopy almost half the length of the aircraft. The pilot sat in front; a rear gunner/radio operator took the rearmost position, while the bombardier occupied the middle seat. During a bombing run, the bombardier lay prone, sliding into position under the pilot to sight through a window in the bottom of the fuselage, using the Norden bombsight.
 
The normal TBD offensive armament consisted of either a 1,935 lb (878 kg) Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 aerial torpedo or a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb carried semi-recessed in the fuselage. Alternatively, three 500 lb (230 kg) general-purpose bombs (one under each wing root and one inside the fuselage), or twelve 100 lb (45 kg) fragmentation bombs (six under each wing root), could be carried. This weapons load would often be used when attacking Japanese targets on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands in 1942. Defensive armament consisted of a .30 in (7.62 mm) Browning machine gun for the rear gunner. Fitted in the starboard side of the cowling was either a .30 in (7.62 mm) or .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine gun.
 
The powerplant was a 850 hp (630 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 Twin Wasp radial engine, a development of the prototype's 800 hp (600 kW) Pratt & Whitney XR-1830-60/R-1830-1. Other changes from the 1935 prototype included a revised engine cowling and a raised cockpit canopy to improve visibility.
 
The XTBD had a flat canopy that was replaced on production models by a higher, domed canopy with a rollover bar. Other than requests by test pilots to improve pilot visibility, the prototype easily passed its acceptance trials that ran from 24 April to 24 November 1935 at NAS (Naval Air Station) Anacostia and Norfolk bases. After successfully completing torpedo drop tests, the prototype was transferred to the Lexington for carrier certification. The extended service trials continued until 1937 with the first two production aircraft retained by the company exclusively for testing.
 
The US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) purchased 129 examples, and began to equip the carriers USS Saratoga, Enterprise, Lexington, Wasp, Hornet, Yorktown and Ranger starting in 1937. Even prewar, TBD units were being shifted to training duties with at least one aircraft being converted to target tug duty. By 1940, the US Navy was aware that the TBD had become outclassed and a replacement, the Grumman TBF Avenger, was in the works, but it was not yet operational when the US entered World War II. Attrition had by then reduced their numbers to just over 100 aircraft. When the US Navy assigned popular names to its aircraft in late 1941, the TBD became the Devastator, although its nickname "torpecker" was still commonly used.