Warbird Information Exchange

True, but I was responding to the OP's lament in regards to there not being anything extinct or really off the wall rare (at least that we know of).

There is one - an Air Corps O-38D that ditched in the '30s was discovered upside down in the silt several years ago; I think it was closer to Michigan (Selfridge?) but I couldn't find the thread ("O-38D" wasn't enough to pull up any results on the WIX search engine ). With only one other survivor, the very different O-38F in the NMUSAF, I'd say it qualifies as off the wall rare.

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

For those of you who forgot about 'Lake Huron' O-38

see

http://www.niagaradivers.com/shipwrecks/sw2007/dt.htm


Also found this reference

"
Shipwreck hunters have made an unexpected discovery in one of the Great Lakes. The team turned up what is thought to be part of the early days of the Air National Guard in Michigan. Shipwreck hunter David Trotter and his team -- several of them from Mid Michigan -- were searching for a new shipwreck on Lake Huron near Oscoda when they spotted a little something on their sonar. What they found surprised even this group of seasoned searchers. A tiny hit on Trotter's sonar would have been dismissed by less experienced searchers as just junk on the bottom. But the instincts and a bit of curiosity of Trotter and his crew kicked in. Putting divers in the water, they made quite a discovery. It was a relatively intact biplane. The canvas coverings on the wings and fuselage were gone and zebra mussels now coated the frame, but there is no doubt about what it was. "It was a rather old airplane," Trotter said. "It was apparently a biplane and had a very large radial engine reminiscent of planes that would have been in service in the '20s and '30s. "They knew it was old and they also realized it was upside down and it had all indications it was likely to be a military aircraft." The mystery is, where did it come from and how did it end up on the bottom of Lake Huron? From looking at video shot by Trotter's crew, aircraft historian Ralph Roberts of Saginaw believes it's a Douglas 0-38. The Michigan Air National Guard flew 0-38s out of what is now Detroit Metro Airport between 1933 and 1941. Some of the pilots trained at Camp Skeel in Oscoda, which eventually became Wurtsmith Air Force Base. But what caused it to go down in Lake Huron?"



Of course maybe it could be this ?
321001 O-19C 31-278 Selfridge Field, Mt Clemons, MI LAC 4 Olds, Thayer S. USA MI Lake Huron, near Camp Skeel, MI

In the news:

Found it here:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/12/05/ ... -michigan/

Refrain: Thank you, Chuck Greenhill!

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Wow, Chuck Greenhill is the man! This is what the second recovery he has financed? Glad there are people of his means around.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Nice work Taras and kudos to Chuck for supporting the recovery. Well done. I can't wait to see some pictures of the Wildcat out of the water.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Hangar One Naval Aviation Museum in Glenview, IL (where most of the planes used in the Great Lakes carrier qualification training were based. Very appropriate.)

The museum has to build a new building to house the Wildcat before they offically get it. Hopefully they can raise the necessary funds while the plane is being restored in Pensacola.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Related but slightly off-topic: I have every reason to believe that Taras knows exactly what he's talking about when he says that there is probably a 10 year window left for recovery of these aircraft. If that is the case, and money is the main stumbling block, why doesn't the Navy consider making a blanket offer like this to the marketplace- anyone can recover a Navy aircraft from the Lake with the following requirements: 1-they use A&T Recovery (due to their knowledge of the Lakes and the aircraft there, along with a proven record of safe recoveries) and 2- they have to fully fund and recover 2 complete aircraft; one for themselves and one for the Navy.

I think that if they did so, it would dramatically increase the pace of recoveries. Private folks would have all sorts of incentive to go pay to recover- they finally get to keep Navy warbirds, the population of them increases, and they have the chance to possibly own a combat veteran. The Navy wins big time, as it gets half of the remaining aircraft recovered at no cost to the Navy, with all of the good PR that goes with the project. The Navy becomes the biggest promoter of its own heritage by ensuring that the aircraft are recovered in a timely fashion, while ensuring that a fair portion of them are preserved in the national collection for distribution to partner museums.

Thoughts?

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!

She's out of the water!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9324.story

--Tom

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Best WIX line of the month

I notice the news reporter starts out with "... a WWII fighter jet is returned to dry land."

Thanks for the pictures Pat. I just caught the tail end of the story on WGN. Yeah, we get WGN here in Ohio

If you have any more pictures please post them.

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Yay Taras and Co! Congrats! And many thanks to Chuck Greenhill as well. Way to go guys!

kevin

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FOUND the elusive DT-built B-24! Woo-hoo!!!