Speeddemon651 wrote:
•421114 P-47C 41-6122 Bailed Out due to Structural Failure Silver Lake, FL
That was Cullen Hoffman at the controls, on 14 Nov, 1942.
Oddly, there was a AAF survival school (with a crude aircraft dunker to simulate crashing into water) there at the time.
I can assure you there's NO airplane in that lake today. I grew up very close by and swam and dove into that lake countless times, even though it is admittedly dark (and reasonably acidic) at the bottom due to tree runoff. It's really not that big a lake, anyway:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=tallahas ... 17&iwloc=AIt was only about 20 feet or so deep at it's deepest point. Doubly ironic is that there is a lake a few miles south of there which had crystal clear water, you could almost see all the way across the lake under water.
All that said, there was a P-47 in Lake Talquin, just to the Northwest of Silver Lake. I've seen several photos of the remains whent he lake was drained for dam work. I've read that the remains were pulled out but I have no idea whatever happened to them.
Also, I know that one .50 caliber MG was recovered because I once personally saw it. It was haning on the basement wall of Nick Fallier, a former jug pilot who has since passed away. I wonder whatever happened to that, as well...