RandolphB wrote:
OK- I'll throw one out probably nobody has heard of...
My father was 17 during WW2, and worked at the Army Base in Orlando as a Soda Jerk durng it. This base later became the Naval Training Center. When I was about 15 or so, we were driving past one end of it and it slowed down and told me that during the war, there was a set of cables mounted over a certain small lake, and a B-17 was hung beneath it. He said air crews were taught how to ditch a plane by using it a a training device. He said the plane would be winched up to one end, crew loaded in and it was allowed to free fall into the lake and sink. Then it would be pulled back up and used for the next crew. He said he remembered going by to work one day when the set-up was being taken down; and the B-17 was just ditched in the lake and the cables and poles were taken down and removed.
Many years later I asked him about it, and he repeated the same details and wondered whatever happened to the plane. He passed a couple of years ago so I can't ask again. The lake would have been on the northeast corner of the base at the time.
Ok... so from your story, does this sound like the base?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Army_Air_BaseIf so, none of the lakes around that base have beed dreged (due to all the construction), which means if your story is true, It's stil there.
Does anyone know which lake they would have used?
PbyCat-Guy wrote:
gary1954 wrote:
PbyCat-Guy wrote:
I have a ROV that I built for this purpose if someone wants to borrow it.
Man that is quite an offer there and mighty darned nice of you
I used to live in New Jersey and heard about P-47 wrecks in some of the lakes, that's why I designed and built it, I'm kinda embarrassed that I did this sort of a thing. Soon I'll be acquiring a metal lathe and hope to build a better version I have designed.
Do you have plans for that? I have a GoPro I could put on a stick if all else fails...