Topic: WWII plane pulled from Lake Michigan

[Damfino]

Cool story, though not the first time a plane has been pulled out of the lake...(Click on the link to the story which also has a short video)

http://www.wgntv.com/wgntv-historic-plane-pulled-from-lake-michigan,0,2368990.story


WAUKEGAN, IL — It's been at the bottom of Lake Michigan for nearly 70 years, but today a World War II era fighter plane was lifted out of the water by a marine salvage company working for the U.S. Navy.

A & T Recovery pulled the plane out of the lake near Waukegan Harbor, where it crashed during a training exercise back in 1943. The plane is a rare early model of an aircraft known as the "Birdcage Corsair".

"It's the only F4U-1 there is in the world, and it's right here," Taras Lyssenko of A & T Recovery tells WGN.

The Corsair is the property of the U.S. Navy and was recovered under the auspices of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida and the Navy History and Heritage Command. The recovery was sponsored by the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation -- a private support organization -- and made possible through a donation from Chuck Greenhill.

Navy pilots flying out of the Glenview Naval Air Station trained to land on aircraft carriers in Lake Michigan during World War II. The "aircraft carriers" used in the training exercises were old lake freighters modified with wooden landing decks.

"There were actually hundreds of airplanes in the water here from these training exercises," donor Chuck Greenhill says.

The "Birdcage Corsair" crashed in the lake on June 12, 1943 as the pilot, Ensign Carl H. Johnson, was attempting to land aboard the USS Wolverine. Johnson survived the crash but was killed later in the Pacific.
Copyright © 2010, WGN-TV, Chicago

[The_Crippler]

As you say, it's not the first (or last) plane to be pulled from that lake...but some how, it's really cool each time.  (Which, really, is probably what makes it news.)

[Damfino]

[The_Crippler]

Eh...I've seen 750 barn finds in worse condition.  They can resto it.   

[Damfino]

I think they oughta hang it in the museum just like that!

[The_Crippler]

Interesting part is - at least from that pic - it looks like only one prop blade is really bent.  That would imply that the engine wasn't running when it went in.  Wonder if he ditched it because of prop-failure.

[tramp]

plane looked in pretty good condition for being in the water for so long

[gmonkey]

Put it on craigslist.  "Needs the carbs cleaned.  Should start right up."

Would the fact that it was in fresh water (as opposed to salt ocean water) mean that it corroded faster or slower?  Most of the skin and structural stuff is aluminum, right?  So it's not going to turn to rust flakes anyway.  The engine is probably in pretty bad shape but you can't see it because of the barnacles or whatever that is.

[Frankenkit]

with so little oxygen, though, it wouldn't have any way to oxidize.  No salt would mean it wouldn't corrode nearly as fast, either.

[Kframe]

Put it on craigslist.  "Needs the carbs cleaned.  Should start right up."

....

That's funny! 
They could also add: "It ran fine the last time it was used. Low miles."
 
-K

[Frankenkit]

"Only laid down once."

[The_Crippler]

"Only laid down once."

I award you 2 free internets for that on.  Damn, that made me laugh.

[cb750dude]

I love seeing these old birds reserected.
And yes Kit without oxygen things decay much slower even if its salt water

[hotpocket]

all it needs is a $10 part to get running again. i just haven't had time.

[pdxPope]

Wonder if he ditched it because of prop-failure.

Not with the landing gear down.


-JP

[The_Crippler]

Wonder if he ditched it because of prop-failure.

Not with the landing gear down.

Well...he was coming in for a landing at the time...   

[AKCafe]

With the canopy open and the gear down he was most certainly in a landing configuration. You can tell by the way that the wings are twisted that when the main gear struck the water that it nosed over and the impact twisted them. I agree that the engine was probably not turning and he probably ditched it due to lack of power. Almost any plane can be rebuilt if given enough time and money but I agree that it is more interesting and historical just the way it is.
I have always wanted to be involved in a restoration on an old warbird but my career has taken me in a different direction. Maybe someday I can, but for now I will keep working on my trusty 747's.

[Bob Wessner]

Reminds me of  special a couple of years ago re: retrieving a P-38 from 200 ft. of ice in Greenland. They had to part it out 200 ft below and pass it up piecemeal. They resored to airworthy and filght certified but it was many years of work and millions of $$.

[weekend_junkie]

I know I will hear complaints from the stock resto crowd, but I think that would make a really sweet chopper.




You can all keep your internets, I already +1'ed myself when I thought of that.

[Damfino]

I saw a special on PBS some time ago about a group of men that went up to Alaska to retrieve a B-29 bomber that had successfully landed up there in the late 40's or early 50's after running out of fuel or something like that. So they spend months trying to piece the thing back together to make it airworthy to fly out of there, even suffer the death of their main mechanic, only to have the generator break off it's mounts while taxiing around for takeoff, causing a fire that engulfed the entire plane in flames!

Found the story, it was the Kee-Bird:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird

The attempted repair and return of the Kee Bird was documented in the 1996 NOVA television episode "B-29 Frozen in Time".

1993 photo of Kee Bird, buried in snow

The end of Kee-Bird

[The_Crippler]

You can all keep your internets, I already +1'ed myself when I thought of that.

Well, fine...be that way.

[Trav-i]

This story reminds me of home.  There is lots of sunken things in lake erie, for a while people were trying to find a sunken paddle boat rumored to have gold on board.  Or there is also rumor of an intact B29 on the bottom of lake ontario.

[Dusthawk]

PBS just replayed the story of the Kee Bird not two months ago out here. I was able to catch it three times and what an amazing amount of work they put into the old 29, not to mention the constant frigid conditions they worked in day after day, then to have the plane go down in flames before it even could start it's take off roll.

Given the chance I would work on the resto of a P-38. I love the non-conventional design of it and how awesomely efficient it was at it's job. That or a P-81 Black Widow. Painted black for night ops, decent bomb payload, and the most up to date electronics of that era.

[Retro Rocket]

With the canopy open and the gear down he was most certainly in a landing configuration. You can tell by the way that the wings are twisted that when the main gear struck the water that it nosed over and the impact twisted them. I agree that the engine was probably not turning and he probably ditched it due to lack of power. Almost any plane can be rebuilt if given enough time and money but I agree that it is more interesting and historical just the way it is.
I have always wanted to be involved in a restoration on an old warbird but my career has taken me in a different direction. Maybe someday I can, but for now I will keep working on my trusty 747's.

You have to love speculation....Did anyone go and read the story..?  These were noob pilots being trained to land on simulated aircraft carriers in the lake which used to get turned into a washing machine due to weather, the pilots simply weren't good enough to land in the conditions and piles of them ditched into the lake. There's apparently 100's of planes on the bottom of that lake.

cool story though....

Mick

[cb650]

They pulled a B-25 from lake mead or powell also years ago.   
Have the " Glacier Girl " on DVD.
Used to know a ex military pilot that thought the B-29 was a insurance job.