F6F 25910 RESTORATION VIDEO
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2013
- restoration progress of F6F 25910, recovered from lake Michigan in late 2009. Flew in combat in the Solomon Islands in 1943/44. Includes pictures of VF-38 and logbook entries from that period.
I love seeing these. My Dad flew F6Fs in a combat tour with VF-19 aboard the USS Lexington in the summer and fall of 1944.
You didn't restore a plane, you built a new one.
Congrats, amazing..
Todd You should see the Vindicator the Naval Aviation Museum restored after being on the bottom of Lake Michigan for 70 years! Looks like it just came off the production line.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I am happy that there are still people capable of performing such complicated mechanical and other procedures...thanks robtcarleen.
Josip Vrandecic The Navy taught me well. The whole team was extremely talented with years of experience.
Absolutely wonderful work, this video deserves more attention
Fabulous restoration well done to all.
I have often wondered, on projects like this, where you cross the line from having an old plane with new parts, to having a new plane with old parts.
Incredible Richard Rogers score. I watched all the Victory at Sea series back in the late 50's. I was a Navy brat at NAS Jacksonville in the early 50's. My parents said Hellcats were always roaring overhead.
Older guys who still know how to make stuff with their own hands.
These old fellas know how to repair airplanes! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 I’m sure they are all volunteers.
The music is from "Victory at Sea" by Richard Rogers and the NBC orchestra from the early 1950's TV show of the same name (beautiful).
One of my favorite documentary series. I watched the episodes on Saturday mornings on a local T.V. station as a little kid in the late 50's. Loved the music, too.
Absolutely fantastic video, great music accompaniment and oh to have been part of this jigsaw puzzle of putting this beautiful lady back together.
So very well done guys and keep up the magnificent work, we love it!
Took 41 months, the whole museum crew of staff and volunteers were involved at one time or another. A cadre of 5 of us were involved in every step from cleaning out all the lake bottom gunk to the last insignia paint. Currently in work is a very rare bird cage Corsair, also retrieved from Lake Michigan, nearing completion, its down to fabric coverings, and final assembly. This one was much more severely damaged and has been in work for over 7 years now. These are a labor of love!
@@robtcarleen Thanks for kind reply, 41 months of a total labour of love I am sure with the odd bit of frustration that must come into these wonderful restorations. Fantastic teamwork! Thanks and take care out there.
I do remember the Simon and Simon episode with the B-25 but not the models....uh oh...mind cells dissolving. Since you are going to fly an Airbus, you should get the uniform that Ralph Kramden wore on the Honeymooners. Good luck on the studying...better you than me!
What are you talking about??? Seriously, I think your brain cells dissolved a very long time ago, what does your comment have to do with the building of an iconic warbird????
The planes still underwater in Lake Michigan are being attacked by mussels. Both inside and outside the airframes, every where one attaches itself, it secretes an acidic adhesive. Once it eats through the paint it continues into the aluminum. The mussels invaded the lake in the past 25 years. Planes brought up before then were in pretty good condition...the SBD-5 on display on Ford Island, for instance still wears most of its original paint, except for the markings, fabric flight controls and a few other areas that had crash damage. The hard part of that painting was to weather it to match the original.
Great work, she is looking great so far. Love the soundtrack, what is it from?
Mine dad briefly flew the night fighter version during the war.
I hope that you've made complete blueprints documentary!
Many drawing were nearly unreadable. They were photographs of a microfiche screen in the NZ military archives. They took up five DVD’s. I made copies of the DVD’s but there were still drawings missing. The drawings were in random sequence, no index, so finding a particular drawing require a page by page manual search. Once I found the drawing, I then opened it in Photo shop and began, in many cases, searching for a legible measurement. The pictures were taken at 72 dpi so quality was crap. Once I found a measurement, I’d draw a ruler with it as a basis. I’d move this digital ruler to get the unreadable measurements….think of a wing rib and all the different measurements you’d need to lay it out full size. It would take me a morning to lay one out on aluminum full size after finding the print to having it ready to cut and form. My laptop was probably the most important tool in my work station.
Extraordinary workmanship, techniques that are almost lost with the use of composite material, I would pay for 10% of your experience
Recovered from Lake Michigan? The job they did on the Vindicator was first rate! When I was there in 2014 I couldn’t figure out if it had been in the water until I noticed the corrosion on the propellor hub.
robtcarleen, we all hope that your shop is restoring this F6F to flyable condition. If not, then just build fiberglass repros.
This plane is a combat veteran of the Solomon’s campaign an still wears original patches from bullet holes. It was recovered from the depths of Lake Michigan for display at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Many more people will get to see this historic aircraft in the museum than they would as a flying aircraft. Hellcats are one of the rarest survivors of all the ww2 warbirds and this was restored as closely as possible to the original for the time and money available. Another million dollars or so would bring it up to flying condition...mostly in engine and electrics. Fiberglass replicas have no place in museums...only as movie props.
@@robtcarleen Every outdoor display and gate guard should be a fiberglass replica. It was terrible that the USAF took a flyable P-38 and stuck it on a pole at McGuire AFB. There are around 120 Navy aircraft on the bottom of Lake Michigan. I hope the US Navy will relax their ownership claim on some of the wrecks so that they can be saved with some restored to flyable condition. The Zebra mussels are going to turn them into lumps of stone eventually.
Martha Vaughan If this was being restored to airworthy condition there would be very little of the original structure used,just the data plates. They can’t take a chance that old corroded parts would fail. They would use original plans and parts to make patterns from and assemble them. There’s lots of flying WWII war birds out their that were assembled that way. The data plates are the valuable parts. They are very expensive to do that way though. Takes lots of time and $$$$$!
one thing concerns me These gentlemen restoring this plane are an ageing population wrecks will continue to be discovered but are there enough young people with the skills to take over restoration work I sure hope so these artifacts of WW 2 should be a constant reminder that we owe our freedom to the men and women who fought and died for it
Michael Naisbitt yes, that’s a concern of mine as well. Our crew was predominately volunteers, although as the project commenced, we were put on the payroll of the museum foundation, however the pay was low, about what a Walmart greeter might make. We would have done it regardless of the pay, it was about comeraderie, and pride in workmanship. Some of us had been doing this type of work all our lives, for some it was a new experience. The point was, you have to have time on your hands, and a real income to do this...that pretty much means retired folks. We do our best to pass on our skills to interested people and there are always a few. I belong to the CAF and EAA and they recognize the same problem...young people don’t seem to show the same interest in aviation that earlier generations had. The military continues to train young men and women in aircraft maintenance and repair, so there’s a knowledge base there. Most will go into other lines of work after their service, but they’ll still have that set of skills.
+Michael Naisbitt Younger people are still getting involved in restorations. And engine builders are retiring and passing the mantle onto younger people in their shops. scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/48394590_2064931850219493_438497928785428480_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=bc91d87da1778bd2b329f2a081e81e77&oe=5CC3C538
Oh man those last pictures, the "cat's" famous folding wings.
ZnenTitan Little known factoid...the F4U Corsair used the same hinge geometry for its retractable landing gear. The Hellcat used 1/4 round pinion gears to accomplish the same aft retraction and rotation.
robtcarleen Thank you for the reply, I guess like any other form of production shared parts lower cost and speeds production. Speaking of production, my dad worked on the Grumman Hellcat assembly line during the war. It wouldn't surprise me if this was one of "his" cats.
Looks like the Pensacola museum restoration facility,not the Garber facility of the NASM. Definitely not the Hazy Center restoration area.
Can an engine that's been underwater for this length of time be brought back to operational condition? Is this restored airplane flyable? I would love to know when they determine that a part like a skin section is still structurally sound enough for flight or must be replaced.
Unfortunately not. Each part must be taken off and inspected then certified by a government inspector. The engine would need a total overhaul and the cost would skyrocket. The cockpit photos only shows aluminum lines for fuel or oil or hydraulics but the lack of actual wiring shows it's only to look complete. :-(
I'm sure this one ended up in a museum. I was thinking the same thing. No way in Hell they would take an airplane from the bottom of the ocean and put it in the sky.
yes they would, just look up the P-47 "dottie mae"
Lake Michigan is big, but not that big!
Lake Michigan is fresh water so there won't be that much corrosion except where aluminum and steel are in contact. Deep pockets get planes flying no matter where they are and what shape.
Restoration or replication?
Why are these planes on the bottom of lake Michigan? And when did they get there?
During ww2 carrier training was conducted on Lake Michigan on two converted excursion vessels. Their superstructure was removed and replaced with a flight deck. The aircraft used were older planes, toward the end of their useful life. Some crashed from mechanical failure, some by pilot error. 1942 to 1945 was the era. They flew out of NAS Glenview Illinois.
I'm restoring a aero-45 at the momment
Let's see it.
Do you have a website? Love to see it.
Great airplane