This Grumman F6F-3....

[Bill O.]

.....crashed off the deck of a carrier barge in Lake Michigan on January 5, 1945. The Hellcat's pilot is 89 and lives in GA.

I took these shots this morning as see saw sunlight for the first time since.

Not exactly on topic but an exciting restoration project.

[Warren F.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Those are great pictures. My father was a fighter pilot and flew Wildcats and Hellcats during WW2. He flew off escort carriers and was one of the first pilots to practice night landings off carriers. He shot down 4 Zeros during the Pacific theatre fights. I have a lot of pictures of these planes.

[Bill O.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Warren:

You'd love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsnP-cye-Ws

[Cecil L.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Bill,
Are you involved in the recovery and restoration? Who has ownership? Knowing the difficulties of recovering Navy aircraft vs USAF/USAAF, I would think that wouldhave been negotiated with the Navy before recovery even commenced.
Being retired military pilot and warbird lover/owner (T-28B), I love this stuff...the F6F is one of my favorites.

[Terry M.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

It is going to Florida for restoration, and then on to the US Naval Air Museum according to local reports.

Bill were you in Chicago for the scraping of the Zebra Mussels? It was all over the local and some national news today.

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

[Bill O.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Cecil:
Project owned and managed by A&T Recovery, Check out their web-site.
http://www.atrecovery.com/ They've been very successful in finding stuff.
They found it 250 feet down, 50 miles from Chicago on the Michigan side of the lake. They had to get permission from both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Historic Preservation Office, which they thought would be approved in June. They just got it.
Terry:
Only in Chicago would we be able to reverse the flow of rivers in order to protect ourselves from the Zebra Mussel.

Bill

[John H.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

My father was a fighter pilot and flew Wildcats and Hellcats during WW2.

Warren -

Mine too - Flew Wildcats, Hellcats, and Corsairs later, was called back for Korea in Corsairs, and transitioned into Panthers before he came home. Had some great stories.

[Stephen R.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Betcha those numbers are matching.......

I also like the P-51 Mustang.

[Tom P.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Hmmmmmmm, I'm surprised anyone here is interested in these old warbirds.
Hopefully, we'll have our bomber flying in about 2 more years-----------------if anyone is interested.





Our first engine is overhauled and ready to go. Of course, it isn't worth much--------------it isn't numbers matching.

[Bill O.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

WOW!

Is that a 25 or 24?

[Steven B.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Tom, more info and pics, please!

I did not make it to LA a few weekends ago, did you guys get the 26 there?

Steve

[Warren F.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

Warren -

Mine too - Flew Wildcats, Hellcats, and Corsairs later, was called back for Korea in Corsairs, and transitioned into Panthers before he came home. Had some great stories.

John,
My father also flew Corsairs, I still have all his log books when the serial #'s of the planes, he had almost 2200 hours in that bent wing aircraft. My mom & dad were both pilots, after the war they were crop dusting the orange & lemon groves in Southern California in the 50's.

[Tom P.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

WOW!

Is that a 25 or 24?

It's a Douglas A-26. This is what it will look like when finished. This is (a photoshoped model) in front of our hanger. One of our guys is a wizzard at this sort of stuff (notice he even got the shadow of the plane on the ramp).



Steve,
No, we flew the black A-26 down to a small town airshow south of Shreveport, LA (Natchitoches). This is us there.

[Michael F.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

very few hellcats around, one of the best navy aircraft in wwII and many kills. My dad flew B-25, 24, 17, and 29 as well as t-6, gooneybird before switching to helos after being recalled in early 50s, flew helos until retirement in 71, over 6000 hours most in helos. we have a b-26 at museum here at dyess afb. new engines it used to have went to caf in midland.

[Robert I.]

Re: This Grumman F6F-3....

"Hmmmmmmm, I'm surprised anyone here is interested in these old warbirds."

My dad, he bought my Corvette new, worked for Northrup. I'm very interested.