Judge interwar aircraft by their own generation

The opening argues that naval aircraft must be judged against their contemporaries, not against machines fielded several wartime generations later. Interwar carrier aviation advanced in roughly three-year cycles, so even a sound design could appear old after one skipped replacement. Against aircraft of its own generation, the Devastator was an adequate 1935-37 design that surpassed the Swordfish in most performance measures but not range or ease of handling. Pilots who knew both types described the Swordfish as forgiving and the TBD as demanding continuous attention, a distinction that matters without making the American aircraft a failure. The famous successes of the Swordfish and the disaster at Midway shaped memory more strongly than balanced comparison did.