F4U-1 Corsair recovered from Lake Michigan

[Edward T.]

http://newssun.suntimes.com/2294021-417/co...y-training.html

 

Lt. J.J. Manley’s report from the USS Wolverine on Saturday, June 12, 1943, included mostly routine information, such as a notation that the freshwater tank was filled and secured at 1635 hours.

 

But the routine was broken at 1725: “F-21 crashed over port beam into water. Pilot, Ensign C.H. Johnson, recovered by crash (crew), sustaining only superficial cuts. Plane sunk in 220 feet of water.”

 

And that was where Johnson’s F4U-1 Corsair would remain, largely preserved by the cold, fresh water of Lake Michigan, until Monday morning, when workers for Florida-based A&T Recovery hoisted it onto a dock at Larsen Marine Service.

 

Dripping with water and decorated with mussels and weeds, the fighter plane was placed next to its tail assembly, which had been ripped off during that ill-fated training exercise 67 years ago.

 

The first to climb back aboard was Chuck Greenhill of Mettawa, an Army veteran and military aircraft collector who helped finance the recovery mission — the 31st World War II aircraft pulled from the big lake by A&T in recent years.

 

Greenhill said he sponsored the project because he feels the Birdcage Corsair — so named for its latticed canopy — is a rare find among the different warbirds that were used in training missions out of Glenview Naval Air Station during World War II.

 

“It’s a very significant airplane, because it represents an era in American history when we were training pilots for overseas duty,” Greenhill said. “Not only did they train the pilots, but the air crews as well. They did thousands and thousands of pilots and crews that way.”

 

By salvaging the plane for display at the National Navy Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., Greenhill said “people can show their kids and grandkids what commitment and dedication there was in World War II toward winning this fight.”

 

The process of bringing the Corsair home involved diving some 270 feet below the surface at a point about 35 miles off Highland Park. Keith Pearson, a recovery engineer for A&T, said there are still multiple wrecked or discarded planes from the war years, and “the ice-cold fresh water they’re sitting in is good for storage, (but) the ravages of the lake will eventually take care of them, and they will be no more.”

 

The Corsair, with its distinct gull-wing shape, is a relatively rare artifact for Lake Michigan because most of the aircraft used for training out of Glenview were Dauntless dive-bombers, which have also been salvaged at Larsen Marine.

 

Pearson said the Corsair’s powerful engine forced designers to move the cockpit toward the back of the aircraft, meaning a pilot would be “looking at the engine, instead of the carrier he wanted to land on.”

 

In 24-year-old Carl Harold Johnson’s case, a post-accident report noted that “(the) pilot made a normal approach but lost sight of the signal officer and decided to take a wave-off, but the plane had settled, and as he applied the throttle, (a tailhook wire) pulled the hook assembly out of the plane.”

 

The report added that after the Corsair left the deck off the port side of the training carrier, it “remained afloat long enough to allow the pilot to get clear.”

 

Though he came away from the accident intact and earned his carrier qualification, Johnson would not survive his resulting wartime service. He was killed on Thanksgiving Day 1944 in a two-aircraft collision over Hawaii.

[Bugme]

Very neat article and the photo series is pretty awesome!

[Cobrahistorian]

I'm glad someone posted this here. I'd meant to do it an got sidetracked. I believe this is THE last F4U-1 birdcage Corsair in existence. This is an incredible find and I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing it at the National Museum of Naval Aviation!

[MWalsh]

This morning after getting my Military Trader email update I re-read the article linked in it, about this Corsair. I saw that the company which recoered it was A & T Recovery, and that they have so far recovered 31 aircraft from Lake Michigan.

 

I found their website and checked it out. Amazing! They have photos of some of the other aircraft they have recovered; F4F Wildcat, SBD Dauntless, TBM Avenger. They also located a WW1 German sub taken as a war prize and used by the US Navy, an old unidentified schooner, etc.

 

Check out their site, it is pretty cool what they have done!

 

http://atrecovery.com/Index.htm

 

MW

[Teamski]

I'm glad someone posted this here. I'd meant to do it an got sidetracked. I believe this is THE last F4U-1 birdcage Corsair in existence. This is an incredible find and I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing it at the National Museum of Naval Aviation!

 

 

Yeah, a birdcage Corsair is right! It's not the only one as there is the one in New Zealand and another that crashed a couple years ago. Needless to say, an important find you KNOW will go to the Naval museum. How more stock can you get?

 

http://www.thescale.info/news/publish/Cors...bird-cage.shtml

 

-Ski

[Sabrejet]

This would make great documentary material for the Discovery Channel!

 

Sabrejet :thumbsup:

[Owen]

Below is a link to photos of the birdcage Corsair

sitting behind the restoration hangar at NNAM.

 

 

http://rides.webshots.com/album/579003474aGwBUn?vhost=rides

[ww1collector]

One of my neighbors, Ed Hendrickson, also went over the side in Lake Michigan. He shot down a zero in the war. He has a copy of the gun camera film to prove it, plus a good scrapbook with pictures and patches. Dave

[Owen]

And here's a link to a local news story.....

 

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news...at-nas-penscola