The USS Midway Museum welcomed two new historic World War II aircraft to its collection. One is highly polished and looks much like it did when it came off the Chance Vought Corporation’s aircraft assembly line in 1946. The other, only a few years older, looks like it’s been sitting in mud at the bottom of a Southern California lake for 65 years – which it was.
Collaborating once again the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fl., Midway obtained long-term loans on a F4U Corsair fighter-bomber and SB2C Helldiver dive bomber. The Corsair has been fully restored and has spent several years on exhibit at the renowned aviation museum on Florida’s panhandle. The Helldiver, or more accurately its pieces, has been sitting outdoors in the Florida sun behind the museum for nearly a decade and a half and resembles something more akin to a mangled metal junk pile than an airplane.
“We’re really very excited to have received both planes, even though their physical conditions couldn’t be more different,” said Mark Berlin, Midway’s operations director who also oversees the museum’s air wing department. “It was great to immediately put the Corsair on display for our guests. On the other hand, our aircraft restoration team truly has its work cut out in restoring the Helldiver to a state that will one day allow us to put it on exhibit.”
Although each aircraft hasn’t taken to the skies for more than half a century, they both still carry their own personal story that makes them more than just anonymous flying machines from a bygone aviation era.
The F4U was flown by both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War. One of the most famous aircraft in naval aviation history, it was credited with helping win the air war over the skies of the Pacific during the later stages of World War II where it had an 11 to 1 victory ratio over enemy aircraft.
“The F4U was arguably one of the most important carrier-based aircraft of all time,” said Karl Zingheim, Midway’s naval historian. “It was an aircraft that remarkably stayed in production as a deployable, tactical aircraft for more than 12 years. The plane that’s now on Midway was built just after World War II.”
Manufactured in 1946, Midway’s new Corsair flew in multiple U.S. Marine Corps squadrons until 1953.
“Once it was retired from military service, it bounced around the country on display, both officially and unofficially,” said Karl, a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. “It even spent some time on display in a motel parking lot in Arizona. It eventually, however, was acquired by the Pensacola naval aviation museum.”
Along with its few bizarre years sitting in front of the Tucson Motel in the mid-1970s, the Corsair was also on display at the National Museum of Marine Corps Aviation near the Quantico Marine Corp Base in Virgina, and the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson before ultimately making its way to the Navy’s aviation museum in Pensacola.
The plane is now on exhibit on Midway’s hangar deck near other World War II aircraft and painted to reflect its service with the Marine Corps.
Midway’s shiny new Corsair stands in complete contrast to its new Helldiver. Built by Curtiss-Wright Corporation in 1944, it spent less than a year flying with the Navy. Assigned to Bombing Squadron 14 (VB-14), the Helldiver was on a training flight in Southern California on May 28, 1945, when everything went wrong.
While pulling out of a practice dive-bombing run, the plane’s engine failed. Unable to restart the engine, the aircraft’s pilot, Ens. E. D. Frazar, ditched the Helldiver into the Lower Otay Reservoir just southeast of San Diego. Both Frazar and his gunner, Army Tech. Sgt. Joseph Metz, survived the crash landing, but the plane quickly sank in 90 feet of water. There it would sit undisturbed for six decades.
It wasn’t until February 2009 that a couple of local recreational fishermen found the wreckage lying under six feet of silt with their fish finder, 200 yards offshore. They reported their discovery to the U.S. Navy.
A salvage operation began the next later, and the Helldiver was finally lifted from its watery grave. Its condition, expectedly, was extremely poor, but better than it could have been for a plane that had been submerged for 65 years. The salvage operation was witnessed by Frazar’s son, Richard.
“I just wish my dad was here to see this,” said Richard when the Helldiver was brought ashore. “It was an awesome feeling to get up there and touch the plane. The connection back to my father is just emotional. It’s very meaningful.”
The plane was loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported back to the naval aviation museum in Pensacola. There is sat. The plan to restore the aircraft in Florida never materialized and after more than 14 years, Midway took possession.
The plan is for Midway’s aircraft restoration team to put the plane back together. It will be no easy task and won’t happen quickly. To help with the restoration, Midway also took custody of a World War II-vintage A-24 Shrike, the U.S. Army Air Corps’ version of the Helldiver. It’s hoped that between the two planes, one beautifully restored Helldiver will emerge.
“We first need to identify and inventory the parts from the Helldiver and the Shrike to see what parts are useable, restorable or can be used as patterns,” said Steve Smith, who oversees Midway aircraft restoration team. “Those parts will then be tagged and stored until needed.
The Helldiver’s wings will be broken down into several sections – wing tips, outer wings, and wing center sections. The dive brakes and control surfaces will also be removed. Once the wings are broken down, the restoration team will actually start to deskin the wings to ascertain the amount of corrosion there and determine if any parts are useable for restoration.
“The pilot did a great job setting the aircraft down in the water with minimal physical damage to the leading and trailing edge of the wings,” said Steve, who served as a curator at the Flying Leatherneck Museum at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar before joining the Midway family. “Unfortunately, the Helldiver was stored outside in the harsh Pensacola environment for 14 years which did not help with reducing corrosion.”
The restoration team will also address damage and corrosion on the fuselage, tail, cockpit and gunner’s section, and landing gear of both planes. Their goal is to ultimately have the entire airframe mounted on its original landing gear.
The restoration is expected to take five to ten years depending on how much damage is found.
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