CAF Missouri Wing's Grumman TBM-3E Avenger

The Missouri Wing of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) is the owner and operator of this Grumman TBM-3E Avenger which is available for airshows, flybys and film. Many people recognize the Avenger as the type of aircraft that former President George Bush flew.

The Avenger was the largest single engine aircraft built in the U.S. until the end of the war and is powered by a Wright Cyclone R-2600, 14 cylinder, 2 row, radial engine turning a 3 bladed Hamilton Standard prop, rated at 1920 H.P. at take-off. The Avenger could carry 2000 pounds of bombs or one 2200 pound torpedo, either two 58 or 110 gallon drop tanks (depending on the mission), eight 5 inch high velocity rockets and bomb racks outboard of the rockets that could each carry a 500lb bomb or the gun packs with two .50 cal guns each. It could also lay mines, smoke screens, tow targets and had air to air radar on some variants. Avengers were also equipped with two forward firing .50 caliber machine guns and one .50 caliber machine gun in a turret aft of the canopy. The Avenger could also be equipped with three bombay fuel tank sizes, a 1/2 size self sealing bombay tank, which still allowed the carriage of 1000lbs of internal bombs and two full size tanks, one self sealing and one not. With the Avenger loaded up, it could be one well armed machine and still go 300 miles away and back.

The mighty roar of a TBM Avenger's R-2600 engine was a sound of hope to thousands on the front lines in WWII, where Avengers patrolled the seas for enemy vessels, fought in numerous naval battles, helped prepare invasion zones, and provided close air-to-ground support for allied troops.

The Avenger first took shape in 1940 as engineers from Grumman Aircraft worked to design a new torpedo bomber to fill a US Navy requirement to replace the obsolete Douglas TBD Devastator. The prototype first flew in August of 1941, named "Avenger" in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Grumman began to produce the new torpedo bomber in January of 1942. Avengers first flew in combat six months later during the Battle of Midway. Unfortunately, all but one of the six Avengers launched were shot down. However, subsequent events afforded the Grumman torpedo bomber the opportunity to demonstrate its lethality as it fought in every carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war.

While the Avenger had many successes in its combat career, there are a few that stand out. At the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Avengers scored several key hits on the battleship Hiei. In the 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Avengers sank the carrier Hiyo. Yet, the real victories for the Avenger occurred in 1945 when the Musashi and Yamato, the world's two largest battleships, were sunk as a direct result of Avenger torpedo attacks. Avengers also flew in the Atlantic throughout the war from small escort carriers and were pivotal in helping defend allied convoys, sinking more than thirty German U-boats between 1943 and 1944.

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