Birdcage Corsair Recovery
- Thread starter Sweb
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vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Very cool! Thanks for posting.
beaupower32
Tech Sergeant
Crimea_River
Marshal
"hundreds of planes down there.." Wow!
T Bolt
Colonel
That's right my me! I wish I had known about it, I would have gone and watched.
There were 2 training carriers on lake Michigan during the war, USS Wolverine and the The USS Sable. Both were converted side paddle wheel passenger steamers.
Picture 1 shows the SS Seeandbee before it was converted into the Wolverine.
Pictures 2 3 are shots of the Wolverine. The arrow points to the paddle wheel.
Picture 4 shows both the Wolverine and the Sable docked at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago
Picture 5 shows a wildcat having a very bad day training on the Wolverine
Picture 6 is a shot I tool id the SBD at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. It also crashed from one of those carriers and was recovered from Lake Michigan a few years ago so maybe the Corsair will one day look this good.
There were 2 training carriers on lake Michigan during the war, USS Wolverine and the The USS Sable. Both were converted side paddle wheel passenger steamers.
Picture 1 shows the SS Seeandbee before it was converted into the Wolverine.
Pictures 2 3 are shots of the Wolverine. The arrow points to the paddle wheel.
Picture 4 shows both the Wolverine and the Sable docked at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago
Picture 5 shows a wildcat having a very bad day training on the Wolverine
Picture 6 is a shot I tool id the SBD at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. It also crashed from one of those carriers and was recovered from Lake Michigan a few years ago so maybe the Corsair will one day look this good.
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RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
I'm not a pilot, but....dang. That looks like a BAAAAAAAAAAAAD day!
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
how cool is that?
you could still see the markings on it...great find, thanks for posting the link
you could still see the markings on it...great find, thanks for posting the link
beaupower32
Tech Sergeant
Your welcome guys.
lesofprimus
Brigadier General
Great stuff Beau....
I haven't seen the video, yet, as I'm on a dial-up connection. That'll have to wait to later tonight. Anyway, I thought maybe some of you might be interested in seeing what a typical log book entry looked like on one of these, as long as we're kind of on the subject. This one's getting down and personal, as it's from my dad's Aviators Flight Log Book when he qualified on the Sable. At that time the pilots were required to make 8 landings and 8 takeoffs, together with a "wave-off," to see how they took those. Basically, these were touch-downs, hook, release, then take off and repeat.
Hey, enjoy.
Hey, enjoy.
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renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
That was an early F4U1 even though it had the bump in canopy for the pilots head which means it was not too early. It probably had not been debounced so it must have been a handfull to land on one of those converted carriers.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing.
There are a number of reasons this plane could have gone into the water. Generally-speaking, when these pilots took this training, they'd come out there in squadrons of six, in the same type of aircraft. There would be a second crew of pilots standing-by on-board the ship awaiting the incoming crew to complete their training so they could then get into the same planes and have their turn at it, after which that outgoing crew would then fly the planes back to Glenview to re-fuel them, while the first crew would return by ship. This plane, in other words, was likely in a squadron of six Corsairs, when it went into the water. Don't forget, these pilots were required to grease these landings in on unstable decks that were bobbing up and down and from side to side, and under weather conditions that weren't always the most ideal. Hey, FWIW...
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acerus
Airman
The Palm Springs Air Museum owns a great restored SBD which was also recovered in Lake Michigan in the mid 1990´s.
On 3. December 1944, Ensign Roy Sorensen started from Glenview for Carrier Qualification. The first landing at the USS Sable was fine. But during the start from the Carrierdeck his Engine shuts down. He made a crashlanding on the Water though managed to get away from it unharmed.
He served the rest of the War flying an Corsair and was also serving in the Corean War.
Would be nice to see more of those Treasures that are lying in the Dephts of Lake Michigan.
On 3. December 1944, Ensign Roy Sorensen started from Glenview for Carrier Qualification. The first landing at the USS Sable was fine. But during the start from the Carrierdeck his Engine shuts down. He made a crashlanding on the Water though managed to get away from it unharmed.
He served the rest of the War flying an Corsair and was also serving in the Corean War.
Would be nice to see more of those Treasures that are lying in the Dephts of Lake Michigan.
