On September 1, 2026, the Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Museum of Kalamazoo, Michigan, moved the last remaining Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless from the Restoration Center of the museum’s Flight Discovery Center (FDC) to the World War II Wing of the museum’s main campus, the Flight Innovation Center (FIC). The aircraft was the subject of an extensive five-year restoration completed this summer and will be on display at the Air Zoo for the next year until it is sent to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, currently under construction in Irvine, California.
As discussed in prior articles HERE, the SBD-1 Dauntless at the Air Zoo, Bureau Number 1612, is the last remaining example of the first variant of the famed Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber that was a mainstay of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps during WWII. This particular example also represents the third SBD Dauntless restored by the Air Zoo, with all three of these having been retrieved from the bottom of Lake Michigan after they were lost in training accidents between 1942 and 1944, with the first of these, SBD-3 BuNo 06624, remaining on display at the Air Zoo, while the second aircraft, SBD-2P BuNo 2173, was sent to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
SBD-1 BuNo 1612, meanwhile, was recovered from Lake Michigan by A & T Recovery on behalf of the National Naval Aviation Museum in 1994 after having been lost during a training flight with Ensign Herbert McMinn on November 21, 1942. The aircraft was later transferred to several museums across the country before being sent to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum (FLAM) at MCAS Miramar, California, in 2012 for restoration to static display. The museum made progress in the restoration over the next nine years, but when the FLAM was forced to close its Miramar location in 2021, SBD-1 Dauntless BuNo 1612 was transferred to the Air Zoo that same year following a stopover at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Over the next five years, the restoration team at the Air Zoo worked tirelessly to restore the aircraft back to its former glory, and though always intended to be a static display, many of the components in the aircraft were restored to fully operational condition, making it one of the most detailed restorations of a Douglas SBD Dauntless to date.
In the final stages of the restoration, the aircraft was repainted in the colors it wore when it was part of Marine Bombing Squadron 1 (VMS-1) stationed in Quantico, Virginia starting in September 1940. Although the aircraft’s fuselage and tail were kept bare metal during its time with the squadron, these sections were painted gray in order to protect the paint from corrosion. By July 2026, the aircraft was fully-reassembled, and a private dedication ceremony was held at the Air Zoo Restoration Center, with one of the original salvagers of the aircraft, Taras Lyssenko of A&T Recovery, being present alongside descendants of the aircraft’s last pilot, Ensign Herbert McMinn, and Colonel Grant Williams, USMC (Ret.), Vice President of Operations of the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum.
Since the aircraft remains on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum, and the Air Zoo also displays SBD-3 Dauntless BuNo 06624, another Lake Michigan recovery restored by the Air Zoo between 1993 and 2002, it was decided following the completion of BuNo 1612’s restoration, the aircraft will be returned to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, which has since moved its collection to the former site of MCAS El Toro in Irvine, California, and is currently in the midst of constructing a brand new building to house the museum at what is now the Orange County Great Park.
Since the FLAM’s target opening date has been moved to 2028, though, SBD-1 Dauntless BuNo 1612 is to be on temporary display at the Air Zoo while the Flying Leathernecks continue to restore other aircraft and artifacts for display. With the aircraft now restored and the Air Zoo focusing on new restoration projects, such as Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina BuNo 46602 and Fairchild-Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II “Warthog” 80-0258, which famous survived a hit to its right engine from a surface-to-air mission during Operation Iraqi Freedom on April 8, 2003, the decision was made to move SBD-1 BuNo 1612 from the Restoration Center at the museum’s Flight Discovery Center to the main museum campus.
The SBD-1 Dauntless was towed tail first from the FDC hangar by an antique Farmall tractor, with restoration volunteers guiding the aircraft on the path from the Flight Discovery Campus to the Flight Innovation Campus. In order to gain extra clearance when going through the hangar doors, the wingtips were temporarily removed for the tow from the FDC to the FIC. With the aircraft moved to the FIC, SBD-1 BuNo 1612 is now on display next to the Air Zoo’s Douglas C-47A Skytrain 42-93168. The world’s oldest surviving SBD Dauntless is set to be displayed at the Air Zoo until the summer of 2027, when it will be shipped to the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum and go on display in the new museum building in 2028, while remaining on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. For more information, visit the Air Zoo’s website HERE.
