SBD-4 Photo Questions

[Oldbaldguy]

Like I said, the first color photo in the OP.  A big round opening in the skin on the side of the pilot’s cockpit is a typical Douglas approach to solving an access problem on a small airframe.  A-4s have a similar big round access panel in pretty much the same place.   Very handy when you can’t get to something from inside a cramped cockpit.  The cover over the hole is flush with the skin, making it very hard to see on a painted airplane.

[Oldbaldguy]

Having said what I said above, I have yet to find a photo that definitively shows an access port there on an SBD even tho we can clearly see one in the photos in this post.  It remains a mystery barring a better explanation.

[denders]

I agree, I haven't seen photos showing an access port that size and in that location. I don't see it in the various sets of drawings (not factory) that I've collected over the years. This photo is of the SBD at Pensacola. My photo from 2013.

 

 

I believe what we're seeing is a fellow sitting on the wing, propped on his left hand/arm, looking down at something laying on the wing between himself and the fuselage, perhaps related to having that small access port open. The two guys could be working together removing something from this aircraft. And I think he has a dark ball cap like the fellow underneath.

 

If you think about the position he's in, his neck would probably be cut half off by the forward edge of the imagined access port.

 

Dave

 

[ChuckD]

Thanks for the information and feedback gentlemen.  This is helpful.  I'm with your assessment all the way, Dave.  Based on the first cutaway posted here, the position of the access panel on the model kit itself (adjusted for, well, Trumpeter), and the photograph itself, I suspect this small access panel is there to gain access to part of the hydraulic system. 

 

With what you've given me, I think I'm off and running to get this build going.  I've got the armature and one leg done for the wing figure.  Turned out okay.  

[Oldbaldguy]

20 hours ago, Jennings Heilig said:

Some airplanes have hatches or ports that others don’t.  Clearly that guy’s head is inside the fuselage, so unless he lives in some parallel space-time continuum or another dimension, then that particular aircraft had a round hatch there.

If we are considering space-time continuae, then we’re looking at black hole.  Simple as that.