24 August 2010, 05:32
China Fleet SailorSB2C-4 Helldiver recovered from Otay Reservoir (San Diego county, CA)
World War II Helldiver plane lifted from reservoir
It looks to be in remarkably good condition (and no, that isn't it pictured above; pics are at the link).
quote:SOUTH COUNTY — As the bent prop of the wounded, but still intact Helldiver bomber slowly emerged from Lower Otay Reservoir Friday afternoon, two F-18 Navy Hornets buzzed the lake.
Coincidence or tribute? No one was sure, but it sure looked like the new Navy was paying tribute to the men who fought before them, to a pilot's plane that finally, after more than 65 years on the muddy bottom of Lower Otay Lake, was brought to the surface.
With a crowd of hundreds on shore, many applauding the sight, the SB2C-4 World War II Helldiver, which crashed into Lower Otay on May 28, 1945, finally was lifted from its muddy grave. Hundreds of people had gathered at the lake all week as the long and tedious process of raising the plane took longer than expected and involved more equipment. The plane was known as "The Beast" because pilots struggled to control it, and it was a monster to retrieve from Otay's mud.
They also called the SB2C the "Son of a Bitch 2nd Class" for, in addition to being hard to control, being a less stable bombing platform than the Dauntless it replaced and occasionally demonstrating a certain structural weakness by breaking into two pieces forward of the empennage.
Of course, those bugs were supposed to have been worked out by the time Curtiss got around to building the dash four version of the Helldiver.
This may be the only one in existence.
quote:The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., will have the plane transported to Florida. The cost of the recovery was estimated to be $125,000. Restoration could run $200,000 and more, with the cost for the raising and all of the expenses for restoration coming from donations to the museum’s foundation.