On board of the American aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) New York, USA 2-10-2017
TBM=aircraft manufactured by General Motors. This torpedo bomber since 1942 in service was originally designed to be used by the US Navy and the Marine Corps. Later were also foreign armed forces using Avengers for instance the Royal Netherlands Navy and further more the British Royal Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Brazilian Navy, Cuban navy, Japanese maritime Self-Defence Forces, French navy and the Uruguayan nvay.
General technical specifications of Avengers: 12,48 (length) x 16,51 (wingspan) x 4,70 (height) metres or 40’11.5”x 54’2” x 15’5” with an wing span of 45,52 square metres/490.02 square feet and a weight of 4.783 (empty)-8.115 (loaded) weight. The crew numbered 3 men. The maximum speed was 442 kilometres/285 miles and the range 1.610 kilometres/1.000 miles. The armament consisted of 7,62mm/0.30” and 12,7mm/0.50” machineguns. Was able to carry a Bliss-Leavitt Mark 13 aerial torpedo, a 907 kilo bomb or 4-225 kilo bombs. Of the TBM-1 were totally 550 built and is similar to the TBF-1. Fitted out with the Sto-Wing patented compound angle wing-folding mechanism to limit the needed storage on board of an aircraft carrier as much as possible.
The Royal Netherlands Navy used Avengers on board of ther aircraft carrier Hr. Ms. Karel Doorman (R81).
