Wednesday, July 31, 2013
The Official Daily Newspaper of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
Corroded cat curiosity
I
t’s a pretty good bet if your warbird arrives at AirVenture lashed to a trailer like Ahab to Moby Dick, it’s not going to fly in the air show. But there’s a corroded FM-2 Wildcat in Warbirds drawing crowds, and a move to have it judged as Most Original Warbird at AirVenture 2013! This waterlogged Wildcat is under the stewardship of Taras Lyssenko, whose A&T Recovery organization has raised around 40 Navy aircraft from chilly Lake Michigan. The training grind of World War II saw many splashdowns in Lake Michigan. The Navy has maintained ownership of these aircraft, and their recovery is accomplished for historical purposes, Lyssenko explains. The Naval Aviation Museum Foundation administers the program. Capt. Ed Ellis is the Foundation’s vice president for development. He says restorations can cost $250,000 for aircraft recovery, $500,000 to $1 million for restoration. The Lake Michigan haul has included some very rare birds—a Douglas SBD Dauntless that served during the pivotal Battle at Midway in 1942, the only Vought SB2U Vindicator extant,and the only known “birdcage” Corsair, socalled because its early ribbed canopy reminded pilots of a birdcage. Does Lyssenko pursue any terrestrial Navy aircraft wrecks for recovery? “Nah…that would be too easy,” he jokes. His company owns the boats and equipment involved in locating and recovering the lake wrecks, but it is not his livelihood. “It’s a hobby; we think it’s cool to go out in the water and find things,”
www.AirVenture.org
By Frederick A. Johnsen
Lyssenko says. “It doesn’t support us.” Sonar maps the lake bottom to give initial indications of the presence of aircraft. Then, robotic submersibles image the wrecks. With a number of known aircraft available for recovery and restoration, Lyssenko acts as an advocate, trying to place projects with backers and museums that will meet with Navy approval. “I make everybody happy with each other,” he adds. Recovery of the wilted Wildcat that Lyssenko brought to AirVenture has been financially supported by warbird owner Chuck Greenhill, Lyssenko says. The impending static restoration will be handled by an experienced crew at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo museum in Michigan; from there, this Wildcat will be displayed in an appropriate museum. He estimates 90 percent of the wreck will be useful in the restoration, once the freshwater mussels are scoured off the airframe. Shallow-water zebra mussels are a problem sometimes, but Lyssenko says the mussel problem is exacerbated by deep-water quagga mussels. “Those things go down hundreds of feet.” The top of the Wildcat’s cowling is badly corroded, indicative of its inverted resting position when it rolled off the carrier deck after engine failure on takeoff. Parked beside the corroded ’Cat is a pristine flying Wildcat from private sources that shows what can be accomplished. Both will be featured in a joint Warbirds in Review presentation 1 p.m. Friday. (See also Shotgun Wildcat story on Page 52.) AVT Taras Lyssenko, right, champions the efforts to raise Navy aircraft from Lake Michigan for museum displays. Behind him is a corroded FM-2 Wildcat that will be reborn as a display. Conrad Huffstutler, left, has a pristine FM-2 parked next to this relic for comparison. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)
PHOTO BY PHIL WESTON
CNG Husky: Avgas game changer?
C
ould the solution to the avgas crisis, the high cost of pilot training, concerns about lead emissions, and a host of other challenges facing general aviation be parked outside the Innovations Pavilion here at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh? The 180-hp Aviat Husky with the bulbous belly tank unveiled here this week makes a compelling case for a cheap, abundant, non-polluting, but heretofore untried energy source for
aviation that could solve these problems: compressed natural gas (CNG). Among CNG’s advantages over avgas: It’s 138 octane, it’s a much cleaner fuel, and it costs less than a dollar for the equivalent of 1 gallon of 100LL. N15NG is the first dual-fuel, piston-powered aircraft to operate on both CNG and avgas. At the flick of a switch and the advance or retarding of the throttle the pilot can switch between the two fuel sources. Cont. p50
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