(Old) dream place for wreck hunters

[airmanual]

I know this photo was taken quite some times ago but there still a lot to be found (and recovered ?) there.

If i'm not mistaken, the last successful recoveries at this place happened in 1991.

Laurent

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobibutu/4 ... 5/sizes/l/

[bluehawk15]

Cool! Where is that and what sort of planes are supposed to be scattered around there?

Brings to mind something I've always wondered about, has anyone ever looked in Tampa Bay for wrecks? They used to say "One a da in Tampa Bay" about the B-26 Marauder. Just wondering if it was true, and if so, what happened to all of them?

[Holedigger]

Looked at other pics on the site, looked to be Zekes or Zeros and other bits. More info would be nice!

Tampa Bay? Most of the bay is rather shallow and from what I hear, the salvage teams were very efficient. Though there was a B-47 that went down a few miles from my house that they say after storms, bits of it wash up from time to time.

[Pogmusic]

Tampa Bay is 1) Saltwater, 2) Very Shallow & 3) a lot of boat traffic with commercial and private fishermen. So, if the a/c wasn't recovered after the crash, it would have been moved by now or deteriorated/smashed to the point of not being recognizable.

[warbird1]

That's Babo, Irian Jaya, the place where the old MOF scored their recovery coup with Bruce Fenstermaker recovering several Zero's, a Judy, Tony and a Betty. I believe that Zero with the twisted tail was the basis for one of the 3 flying restorations which were accomplished in Russia. The Judy is with the POF in Arizona, the Betty with the POF at Chino, and the Tony was sold to another dealer and last I heard was in Russia, awaiting a buyer.

[warbird1]

Regarding Tampa Bay, some stuff was recovered there in the late 80's, if I'm not mistaken. There is an old thread from the archives which covered this very topic from about 5 to 7 years ago. IIIRC, some substantial bits off of a P-43? were recovered and are with an anonymous collector now. Like others have said, Tampa Bay is way too corrosive an environment and even back then in the 80's, the few wrecks worth recovering were only good for patterns plus maybe a few forgings and fittings, perhaps. Anything that was recovered today, probably could not even stand static by itself due to the possibility of collapse from gravity, IMO.

[airmanual]

That's Babo, Irian Jaya, the place where the old MOF scored their recovery coup with Bruce Fenstermaker recovering several Zero's, a Judy, Tony and a Betty. I believe that Zero with the twisted tail was the basis for one of the 3 flying restorations which were accomplished in Russia. The Judy is with the POF in Arizona, the Betty with the POF at Chino, and the Tony was sold to another dealer and last I heard was in Russia, awaiting a buyer.

Absolutely correct. I would just add that the Judy is now back at Chino where restoration to static display has now started.

This is also where the Indonesian AF museum recovered an Oscar, a Sonia, A zero and a Sally (last 2 are shown in the Flickr album) in the early 80s.

Up to 150 partial and complete wrecks were to be found within a 10 miles radius of Babo in 1972. A few have been recovered, quite a few have been scrapped but a lot still remain.

Laurent

[warbird1]

Absolutely correct. I would just add that the Judy is now back at Chino where restoration to static display has now started.

I wasn't aware that restoration had started on the Judy. That's too bad it's being restored to static instead of being a flyer. Just slap a 1710 on that baby and take her flying!

Do you have any pictures of the Judy in restoration? I'm surprised they would take on such a complex restoration such as that without making her airworthy.

[PinecastleAAF]

There is an old thread from the archives which covered this very topic from about 5 to 7 years ago. IIIRC, some substantial bits off of a P-43? were recovered and are with an anonymous collector now.

I remember him, he lives in Tarpon Springs. He is the same gentleman that recovered the early P-51 from the lake near Bartow. I think it belongs to John Muzala now.

The P-43 remains were from the rudder assembly and it was in nice shape because it was stainless steel and not aluminum, or at least part of it was. I was looking at some P-40 remains he had for sale.

[Steve Nelson]

This is also where the Indonesian AF museum recovered an Oscar, a Sonia, A zero and a Sally (last 2 are shown in the Flickr album) in the early 80s.

Actually, that's a Lily (Ki-48) rather than a Sally (Ki-21.) Too bad..I think there's only one Sally known to exist, and I believe it's being kept as-is, where it (i.e. left in the jungle to rot) as a tourist attraction.

SN