USS Wolverine/Sable

[shepsair]

Looking forwrd to this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvIo6etNpE

regards

MS

[Pat Carry]

That looks too kool!

[muddyboots]

Cool!

[Chris Brame]

Looking forward to this, big time! The producer also made Top Guns of '43 for PBS in Chicago, so this will be a worthy followup.

Since there apparently aren't any plans to recover any more TBFs, and SNJs are too common to be worth recovering, this may be our last chance to see them fairly intact. Wonder if they'll show the other Vindicator?

[Steve Nelson]

I've got a crappy second-generation VHS dub of "Top Guns of '43." Excellent documentary. I did get a chuckle out of the opening titles describing it as a "secret mission." The carriers docked at Navy Pier on the Chicago waterfront..hardly what I'd call secret.

Still looks pretty cool though. A few years ago Bill Waldorf build a 1/72 model of the Wolverine for the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. He recruited several of us in the model club to do the aircraft and crew figures. I contributed a pair of SNJs and an SBD (as the aircraft currently on display in the museum, but in her training markings.)

Those carriers were marvels of wartime engineering. They were converted from luxury cruise ships to functional aircraft carriers in a matter of weeks. Bill had a heck of a time recreating the Wolverine, because there really weren't any blueprints to speak of..the conversions were mostly designed as they went along.

Here are some shots of the model, before it was placed in the Air Zoo.

SN

[shepsair]

Cool Model.

F4U, F6, TMB/J, SNJ and SBD.

Its a shame more TBJ's have not ben recovered - same with the SNJ's.

I assume it will only be SBD's if there were to be more recoveries.

regards

MS

[Pat Carry]

Great looking model. Thanks for posting.

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Does anyone have a comprehensive list of aircraft lost in Lake Michigan ? Great model.

[tulsaboy]

Jiggers-

This is what the Navy says:

"The Navy used various aircraft for these training qualifications. Through ship’s logs and Aircraft Accident Cards we know that of the aircraft listed as lost were 41 TBM/TBF Avengers, one F4U Corsair, 38 SBD Dauntless, four F6F Hellcats, 17 SNJ Texans, two SB2U Vindicators, 37 FM/F4F Wildcats and three experimental drones known as TDNs.10 "

Taken from:
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-6i.htm

That link has some additional information about the Lake Michigan training during the war. I am unclear on exactly how many of those aforementioned aircraft have been recovered, save the Corsair that was recovered this last year.

kevin

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Thanks Kevin. Seems like there is a lot of work ahead to recover them !

[shrike]

A TDN would be worth recovering too, although it's doubtful that the wood structure would have survived the crash and subsequent time under water any better than any of the other wrecks. Not as flashy as some of the other candidates, but it is, sadly, more significant to the current trend of Naval aviation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_Aircraft_Factory_TDN-1.jpg