![]() ![]() The British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force canceled their orders. The second went down as well when it was pulling out of a dive. The aircraft was plagued by problems from the start with the first prototype crashing in February 1941. One of the Helldiver’s nicknames was the “Beast,” because of its reputation for being difficult to handle. ![]() “It wasn’t a particularly good airplane.” “At the end of the war, they were obsolete and so they just chopped them down, melted them and made most of them into tin cans,” Ellis said. Only a handful of the 5,100 dive bombers manufactured during World War II still exist. Ed Ellis, of the museum in Pensacola, Fla. ![]() “We’ve been looking for a Helldiver for quite some time,” said Navy Capt. If it can be restored, the National Naval Aviation Museum hopes the Helldiver fills a void in its collection, considered to be one of the world’s largest displays of naval aviation history with more than 150 planes. 19 - 65 years after it plunged into the cool waters. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the craft was set to be raised on Thursday, Aug. Now private salvage divers have been slowly and gently clearing away the silt and mud covering the SB2C Helldiver. But the plane remained at the bottom of the lake, forgotten for six decades until it turned up last year on the angler’s device. The pilot and gunner aboard managed to ditch the craft and swim ashore to safety. Navy divers later confirmed it was a rare World War II dive bomber that crashed after its engine failed during a training exercise on May 28, 1945. SAN DIEGO (AP) – It was a surprising image for the fisherman hoping to find bass on his electronic fish finder: The outline of an airplane submerged 85 feet below the surface of a San Diego reservoir. World War II dive bomber, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |