The TBD introduced a cluster of carrier-aircraft firsts

The TBD won a heavily contested procurement competition partly because it offered reliability alongside a cluster of important innovations. It was the US Navy's first carrier monoplane and is presented as the first all-metal naval aircraft, with an enclosed three-seat cockpit and hydraulically folding wings. Powered folding reduced deck-handling labor and allowed stronger wings without making sailors move all that weight by hand. The long enclosed canopy gave the pilot, navigator or torpedo officer, and radioman-gunner a far better working space than the open positions of the T4M. A Norden bombsight and other modern fittings made the aircraft a credible late-1930s strike platform rather than an inherently failed design.