WWII dive bomber recovered from Lake Michigan

Some neat news from my neck of the woods. A little O/T but it's a major find of fast old iron. And it looks in amazingly great shape! (I call dibs on the seat)

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/world-war-ii-dive-bomber-recovered-from-lake.html

 

Man thats cool!!

 

I believe that's a Dauntless. The cold water does an amazing job of preserving stuff! Awesome!!!

 

Very neat story and pics, I love stuff like that. For me, it's not whether it's a car or a fighter plane, but to see something old brought up for people to enjoy seeing again. Thanks for posting it.

 

according to the article mike theres still about 60 more seats out in the lake , i want a propeller!

 

Thats just as cool as all get out,

Unbelievable !

 

Interesting that they lost about 100 in the lake around there and 40 have been recovered so far. That leaves 60 still down there just like it.

 

Slick as can be.

 

seen them lift it out on the news that night, very cool

 

Too cool. I love stuff like that!! Plane looks incredibly well preserved. Some flat black paint, bad flames and you an have a rat plane. The only problem is now everyone will be posting their "lake find" cars.

 

thats cool man. its nice finding vintage stuff like that

 

yep-SBD Dauntless. Stout old bird. Dive Bomber

 

Looks better than that miss belvedere that was well preserved...

 

Funny you mention that.I recall a story from a few years ago about an old ferry going down in Norfork lake around Mountain Home Ark. in the '50's.From what i remember of the story all the cars and the ferry are still down there,Something about there was'nt a crane and barge on the lake big enough to raise the stuff from the middle of the lake,If i can find the story and location i'd like to dive there this summer just to check it out.I want to say there was around 12-15 cars on board

 

That's really cool, amazing how well it held up. Reminds me of the lost squadron and the recovery of the P-38 dubbed "Glacier Girl". If any of you never heard of it, here's a link-
http://p38***n.org/glacier-girl.htm

 

i always heard rumors but never heard if it was true or not that back in the late teens a whole barge filled with fords went down in that same harbor. i live 5 minutes from that harbor and always wondered if it were true or not, anyone heard anything on this before?

 

thats cool, good to see....

 

Man, that is neat. Love old war birds.

 

Our fathers and grandfathers fought and died in those machines to protect our freedom and liberty.

I salute them all.

 

SBD= Slow But Deadly

Glad to see they got another one out of the drink. Now the REAL fun begins; restoration. And it'll smell real good when the zebra mussels start to die off...

 

haha lake finds, now Looked like the old gal was about to be totally encrusted with zebra mussels!

 

I rememebr the TV show on that plane on the History Channel a couple years back. Absolutely incredible how much work and money went into that P-38. Kinda makes a hot rod project look like a walk in the park, don't it?

 

That's an awesome piece of history. It's not everyday that they find something like this and are able to bring it to the surface.

 

http://www.theswampghost.com/

 

Dauntless - great looking Dive Bomber. Not like that ugly Curtiss Helldiver haha....

High school seniors who say that WWII was started by "some dude called Hitler" and thats the extent of their knowledge and understanding? WTF?????

IMO its an absolute crime that kids in school are not taught about what their forebears did during the war and that sacrifices they endured so that kids today can enjoy the things that they do.

If I was a Vet I'd be shaking my head asking what was it all for ?

Rat

 

I saw the same show, but I never thought that plane would ever fly again, I figured it would end up a static display museum piece. It was really cool to see it flying again.

 

"This plane was one of nearly 100 that were lost during those exercises. About 40 of them have been recovered."

Too bad they didn't have simulators back then. They should have made 'em spend more time in the cl***room before givin' 'em the stick.


JOE

 

Cool post, Mike. As always, great job! Missed you in Austin.

 

My wife and I lived in Egegik, Alaska for nine years. Little village in Bristol Bay. During WWII a PBY got into trouble and the pilot landed on the largest lake he could find. Ok for landing but wasn't large enough to take off so the Navy just walked away from it.
My buddy and I flew over it several times but I never made the effort to make the trip out to see it up close. After we moved back to the US I heard someone managed to salvage the old bird. I think they took off the wings and heloed out the pieces.
Nice to see another piece of history come back to us, thanks for the post.

 

Wasn't a HAMBer involved in the restoration? I hope my memory isn't failing, but my brainpan tells me there was some posts on here...