Jack of All Trades: The Grumman Avenger

Wings of Gold, Fall 2004 by Cate, Dudley

The image often invoked by the term "carrier aviation" is of a sleek strike fighter approaching the carrier for a "controlled crash." But in addition to the F-14s and FA-18s, there are a numerous other aircraft in the carrier air group performing a variety of other missions: EA-6Bs providing ECM cover for strike missions; E-2s providing airborne early warning and command and control; C-2s linking ship to shore for high priority passengers and cargo; S-3s for tanking and anti-surface warfare; and SH-60s protecting the ship from attack by submarines and conducting special warfare support.

All of all these "support" capabilities were, at one time or another, handled by a single aircraft, the Grumman Avenger. The Avenger was primarily a torpedo bomber. It entered service shortly after Pearl Harbor and quickly proved itself a competent if not glamorous airplane. Somewhere along the line it picked up a nickname: the "Turkey." But Turkey it wasn't.

Like all of the Navy's torpedo aircraft the Avenger was large, driven by the requirements for delivering a heavy payload, having long range and a crew of three. It had almost twice the power and was 30% faster than its predecessor, the Douglas TBD. It was the Navy's first carrier-based torpedo plane to carry its payload internally, the first to have a powered gun turret, and the first with armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. It used the F4F-4 "Grumman wing fold"-aft vice upward - seen today on the E-2 and C-2. However, despite its size and weight, it was well-behaved around the boat, especially in the approach. This no doubt contributed significantly to its long and varied operational career.

As Grumman's first torpedo bomber design, it was designated the TBF. But in order to clear the Grumman plant for production of the F6F Hellcat, Avenger production was shifted to the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors with final assembly in Trenton, New Jersey. Hence, most Avengers, and all later ones (the production -3s), were than TBFs.

As the early TBF-1s replaced the TBDs in the fleet during 1942, the first alternate use of the TBF was proposed by Grumman and senior Navy officials: a fighter that would offset the turning maneuverability of the Japanese Zeros. The turret and other unnecessary toropedo/bombing equipment would be removed and adequate forward firing guns were proposed. The BuAer class desk officer assessed it for fighter suitability and gave Grumman a free hand in design, development and flight testing of the prototype. His BuAer chief wouldn't be able to fault him for any actions resulting in the non combat worthiness he forsaw. Subsequently, Navy flight testing killed the obviously faulty concept.

In early WWII the Navy committed to building a fleet of small aircraft carriers (CVEs) to serve as escorts for merchant marine convoys. In part due to its good low-speed characteristics, the Avenger, together with the F4F/ FM Wildcats, were chosen to serve on escort carriers.

The Avengers accommodated successive developments of small short-range radars to serve as "hunter" aircraft. The first sinking of a U-boat by CVE-based aircraft without help from surface ships was by an Avenger and a Wildcat of VC-9 operating from the USS Bogue (CVE-9) on June 6, 1943. As the war progressed the original Avenger ASW payload of depth charges was supplemented by the MK24 homing torpedo and wing-mounted unguided rockets. Late in the war U-boats began to restrict their surface ops to nighttime forcing a rapid-response effort to train Avenger aircrews for night takeoffs and landings from the tiny CVEs.

In 1940 the Navy established the Radiation Laboratory at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts to pursue further development of an extended range radar for Naval applications. In 1942, long before the start of kamikaze attacks by the Japanese, work began on Project Cadillac to develop an airborne radar system for installation in carrier-based aircraft.

The resultant system consisted of the APS-20 search radar, a radio to transmit the radar data to the carrier 's CIC, a receiver to permit control of the radar from the ship, an IFF interrogator, an IFF transponder, plus standard communication and navigation units. The APS-20 antenna was a three-foot by eight-foot quasi-ellipse and the total equipment package weighed about 2,300 pounds, a little more than the weight of the standard WWII airborne torpedo.

Not surprisingly, the airplane selected to host this system was the Avenger. The antenna was mounted to extend below the fuselage, covered by a bulbous radome. The bombardier/navigator and the radioman/gunner, the turret and the ventral and forward-firing guns, and all armor were deleted, and a seat, controls and displays for an airborne operator were shoe-horned into the rear fuselage.

The resultant TBM-3 W entered service at the end of the war. About 40 aircraft were modified with this configuration and were assigned directly to carrier air groups or to two Fleet Airborne Electronic Training Units (FAETUs), one for LANT, one for PAC. In 1948 they were reassigned to two new carrier airborne early warning squadrons (VAW-1 and VAW-2), which were later redesignated as composite squadrons (VC-1 and VC-2). The -3W became known as the "Pregnant Turkey."