EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016: Warbirds - Grumman Avenger

Fred Harl and Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience resumes our year-round coverage of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 with a look at some of the Grumman TBM Avengers on the field during the week in honor of the scheduled Second Annual TBM Gathering in Peru, IL.  The designation TBM indicates the General Motors production model of the Grumman TBF Avenger from 1942 forward.  The Avenger was used primarily to deliver torpedoes against Japanese shipping and bombing shore installations in the Pacific Theater, and it was used by the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Air Force in great numbers.  Many of the surviving Avengers are late model TBM-3s with strengthened wings for rockets and radar, with some taking on post-war civilian missions such as crop and mosquito spraying.  Here the Pacific and Atlantic theater paint schemes are illustrated.