As I said yesterday, we will return now to the process of turning an ugly duckling into a beautiful bird.
First off I will show some of what the warbird looked like when we received the plane. The plane arrived in several main pieces as the fuselage and the two main wings.
As you can see the plane belly landed in the water bending the prop, caving in one side of the fuselage and probable damage to the rudder and elevators. Over time some more damage would have ensued while under water. The aluminum frame was in remarkably good shape without corrosion. Very little rust was seen overall. The engine suffered probably the most as it was encrusted with sediment. The fuselage was also filled with sediment. The landing gear was worse for wear. Much had to be fabricated from new aircraft aluminum. After cleaning work started on the damaged fuselage. The initial crew was relieved when it was noted a mistake was made in the cutting of panels which led to incorrect placement of an access hatch.
Crew #2 took over and they stayed on the plane all the way to completion.
Removed from the plane but not placed back into the plane so it could be used as a display. The self-sealing fuel tank.
Next up in the process was the manual landing gear carriage.
The pilot has a lever on his right side where he can raise the gear by manually turning the lever. As you can see the gear is raised by bicycle-style chain. It is quite the contraption.
Of course this meant sourcing all new tires for our hot rod.
Next up is the cockpit. As you can see a Wildcat is pretty basic inside and you can read the self-explanatory labels on the equipment.
Moving onto the wings which have been placed back on the fuselage after some minor work to them. One should note that the FM-2 and the F4F-4 had Grumman’s patented Sto-Wing aft-folding wing folding system. The early war F4F-3 did not have the folding wings. Unlike an Avenger the folding system on the wildcat is manual.
From there there we moved onto the damaged rudder and elevators which are fabric control surfaces over ribs.
Now for the engine. Our plane leader had his own machine shop where he did race engine work for Mercedes and Porsche. It was at that shop where much of the metal work was done for the plane besides the engine. The engine in an FM-2 is the more powerful Wright Cyclone R-1820 here in all it’s glory right down to the safety wiring of nuts.
With the engine now on the plane it was time to paint. The rudder, elevators and ailerons were removed after test fitting and had their fabric control surfaces applied. The main fuselage had been painted earlier as a test. We are fortunate to have a volunteer who is a paint chemist. He formulates the correct colors and composition of the paint and then goes to his paint manufacturer and creates the paint after which he brings it to the ship. Not only for the plane but for ship decks and bulkheads. So now satisfied the plane is taped off and painted in an evening after the museum has closed. After curing all the insignias are applied along with correct stencils. The plane is now ready for it’s dedication party set for a weekend. I see it before then and shoot it using my Minolta Maxxum 7D.
The detailing was spectacular in it’s execution.
The pilot of the plane when it went into Lake Michigan was stenciled onto the plane. With over 120,000 landings only eight pilots lost their lives in a training accident. This pilot survived but had since passed away. However, we did locate relatives and let them know that his plane and name were resurrected by the Hornet.
So that concludes my little story on an FM-2 Wildcat. I have several other plane stories, and one helo to work on, including the one that gave me my screen name. I am also formulating several on the Essex Carrier of which I am familiar with. Those will wait awhile because it is time for the Wildcat to shine as it is party time and she is going out for the night all dressed up. On top of it these things take time…whew
Excellent work! Love the Grumman bicycle-chain landing gear retraction mechanism.
Amazing how simple these old birds are. Is it airworthy or just a static display?
Static. In order to get FAA certification all the work done on the plane has to be done by FAA certified A&M guys and logged. If we asked for the FAA to actually certify the plane they would have A&M guys go over the entire plane with a very fine toothed comb first. In the early years, when I did the Avenger, it was hard to get the volunteers with FAA certification to help as they worried about their license. They would tell me how to do something verbally and then I would work on the plane.
Very cool, I’d known that the Wildcat had a handle to turn to work the landing gear but hadn’t seen the mechanism. There’s another thing to do when preparing for a carrier landing.
I’d guess the engine was the worst part on recovery because of the magnesium castings. Looks like aluminum did better than steel in Lake Michigan water.
I’d guess the engine was the worst part on recovery because of the magnesium castings.
An article about the first Dauntless the Kalamazoo museum restored noted that magnesium parts were completely gone. The museum considered restoring the plane to airworthy condition, but they would have had to replace so much of the structure, it wouldn’t be a restoration anymore, but, rather, a replica.
This is how that Dauntless appears in the museum now. When the museum looked up the Bureau number, they found that, before it was used for training, the plane had been embarked on USS Ranger and used in Operation Torch, so the plane was restored with Operation Torch markings.
The photograph that can be seen on the floor in front of the plane shows it’s appearance when first recovered from the lake.
Speaking of engines, here’s the crank from the Dauntless the museum has been working on lately.
I remember reading somewhere that an easy way to tell new Wildcat pilots in the pattern was to watch them on climbout as they manually retracted the landing gear – the plane would bobble up and down as they worked the crank.
Nice to see another Wildcat restored.
There is something of a race on to recover aircraft from Lake Michigan. Since their introduction to the Great Lakes, quagga mussels have been latching on to everything solid in the lakes, including all the crashed aircraft. The mussel’s secretions corrode the aluminum, so aircraft that have been well preserved for decades are now rapidly deteriorating. By some estimates, aircraft still in the lake for another 10 years will be too far gone to raise.
I read that the restoration facility at the Navy museum in Pensacola had some sort of toxic waste issue a few years ago, so was shut down. By the time the building had been cleaned up, the restoration people had all gone on to other things, so the Navy is now contracting with the museum in Kalamazoo for restoration work.
This Dauntless has been in the museum’s shop for a couple years. iirc, they also have had a Wildcat in there.
These are wonderful pictures of an amazing restoration. I particularly like the internal pictures; the inside of the fuselage looks like nothing so much as the inside of a grain bin. 1930’s high tech!
Question: why did these otherwise all-metal planes have fabric covered control surfaces? Was that to “add lightness,” manufacturing tradition, or for ease of repair, or some other reason? One would think they could peel right off in a high speed dive.
Kermit Weeks has an FM-2 in the collection at his Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida. He has posted a series of three videos he shot of a flight he took with it, with the camera attached to the top of his helmet. About as close as you can get to “being there” I would think.
Those Navy pilots were brave.
Control surfaces could be made from fabric (cotton, linen), wood, aluminum alloy or even steel. All planes up to WWII had used fabric as it was tradition you could say not to mention it was lighter and made balancing of the control surfaces easier.
You are right in that an issue rears it’s head at high speed as the surface could bloom/distort off the frame. Pilots reported that problem on various planes like the Spitefire, ME 109, and P-47. I’m sure the same would be said of the Hellcat. The Spitefire transitioned over to metal surfaces in 1941 and achieved a higher rate of roll at higher speeds. Other planes transitioned to metal skins throughout the war.
Today fabric is till used for planes and would usually be Ceconite. I used Ceconite to repair the elevator control surfaces on the Avenger so I’m sure Ceconite was used on the Wildcat.
Thank you! That was a question I had wondered about for a long time.
Found a video last night that explained the supercharging system on the F4F, the narrator seemed to know what he was talking about. He reported that the Wildcat was so stout, within its design parameters, that it did not really have a “Do Not Exceed” speed in a dive. It would zoom up to about 550 mph (is that right?) and then just sit there until you pulled out. Which gave the Wildcat its primary advantage over the Zero, which became difficult to control over about 440 mph. Grumman Ironworks, indeed!
Great article and series. I was at OSH one year (1990s IIRC) when a freshly restored Wildcat that had been recovered from the Great Lakes was on the flight line. I was taking pics when I noticed a group walking toward the plane – one was an elderly gentleman. Turns out he was the pilot that put the plane in the drink during training and this was the first time he had seen it since. It was a very moving moment.
I just love anything that files. When I was a kid, my uncle was Sergeant in the RCAF. He used to let me play in military aircraft after hours. He was an amazing man, and he really loved airplanes. One of the best memories in life was how he got me inside an Avro Vulcan. I was like ten years old, and I still vividly remember it.
He, dad, and I drove on the base and parked the car. We just wandered up to the Vulcan, and uncle was not in uniform. I got in, but the RAF Flight Sergeant wouldn’t let dad in. Looking back, it is kind of surreal.
But I digress. It is so wonderful for someone to have to time to volunteer in such a great enterprise. I am sure all the volunteers are wonderful, fun and enthusiastic people. When I retire in a few years, I would really enjoy working on a project like this, even if I only swept the floor, I would have been part of history.
Has anyone dared to add up the man hours involved in this wonderful restoration? I have watched restorations at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Houston (formerly Galveston before Hurricane Ike). The time required per square inch (yes, square inch) is enormous. I am sure glad people undertake these projects because I love these planes but I am that the younger generations just are not interested. The same goes for the Battleship Texas – there is very little interest anymore.
I know my man hours. I spent 3000 restoration hours on the Avenger and have spent 11,000 hours on ship restoration. That is just me. Tom, our jack of all trades easily has 20,000 hours. He has also put in thousands of his own dollars towards parts and materials. I have put in a bit less, but over $4000, buying my materials like paint, brushes, tools, brass nuts, bolts and screws to name a few. I don’t ask for reimbursement nor does Tom.
Our group of restoration volunteers have an average age of around 70 and numbers about 20 consistent people. We are working as fast as we can to as much done as possible as I know new volunteers 10 years from now will simply not walk on board anymore. The Texas is an example of that and a truly big shame. A historic ship that served in two World Wars, the only WWI dreadnought left, and with some firsts in ships like a primitive analog computer for fire control and range finding.
Thanks for the note about the engine change between earlier and later Wildcats, something I had suspected for a long time, but never got around to looking up.
The Kalamazoo museum’s Wildcat is a late production FM. Besides seeing it fly at shows, it would sometimes fly over my apartment, which was only a couple miles from the airport.
The engine sound of that FM was distinctive, as the engine sounded “old”, if you know what I mean, like it was running at very low speed, even at take off.
One year, the FM was in for repairs and not available for the show, so the early production F4F in the pic I posted on the earlier thread flew in to take it’s place in the “Cat Flight”.
The earlier F4F’s engine sounded much smoother as well as running faster. By the engine note, it seemed the older plane should have been more powerful and faster.
This is the “Cat flight” that was one of the main events of the show, also showing the miserable overcast and rain typical of June in west Michigan, which eventually killed the show by causing so many rainouts.
The FM-2 had a Wright engine with 9 cylinders while the earlier models had Pratt & Whitney engines with 14 cylinders. I think more power strokes per revolution always sounds more powerful and smoother. Think of a V-12 versus a V-6.
As a former Grumman employee, I say thank you tbm3fan for this write up.
The F4F and related Cats were long before my time, but even my contemporary Cat project, the F14, hasn’t flown under the USA flag in over 12 years. Most have been shredded to keep parts from getting to Iran.
Time flies.
Just for you then a live F-14A Tomcat the day after she flew into SFO. You could say this was her last carrier ride. A bit smaller than a CVE escort you could say.
Must have been a tough moment for the person dismissing that first crew.
What a great story! I recall reading about the Wildcat and other WWII fighters in grade school and felt a thrill when my first trip to summer scout camp involved a fleet of aluminum Grumman canoes. Not exactly wildcats but I knew they were as close as I was likely to get.
Thanks for all of your work at preserving out military heritage.
You could always get an old Grumman delivery truck and paint it Navy Blue with the star n bar insignia 🙂
Come to think of it, that would be a cool support vehicle for warbird airshows, wouldn’t it? Offer free rides in a Grumman!