Thursday, October 16, 2003

Rare WWII plane roosts here

By LYNN BULMAHN | News-Journal Staff Writer

Planes just like it fought the Battle of Midway. And, they helped win World War II.

But, like the greatest generation of Americans who fought the war, the TBF Avenger Torpedo Bomber is becoming scarcer every day.

Bill Scherl, a local pilot and a World War II buff, checks out a Grunman torpedo bomber while it sits on the flatbed of a truck Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at the DeLand Aviation Museum in DeLand. (Photo: News-Journal/Chad Pilster)

That’s why officials at the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum are thrilled to have acquired one of the vintage warplanes — and also a torpedo that it would have carried — which the public can view.

Pieces of the bomber arrived on the back of a tractor-trailer Wednesday afternoon. This morning, a crane is scheduled to hoist it onto a concrete pad in back of the museum, 910 Biscayne Blvd. at DeLand Municipal Airport. Restoration will begin right away, said museum executive director Dale Alexander.

“It’s really nice to be able to get hold of a collector’s item like this,” Alexander said.

The Grumman TBF torpedo bomber, which will be worth about $500,000 when restored, is on permanent loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, Alexander said.

Ed Carson, who helped bring the plane to DeLand, will research its wartime service, battles it fought in and the names of its pilots. “We will start tracing the history of it based on its serial number,” he said. But, the plane’s last flight is quite a story in itself.

“It was attempting to land on a training carrier, the Wolverine, in Lake Michigan, when the engine caught fire and (commanders) told (the pilot) to ditch it,” Alexander said. It remained under water for five decades. Then, it was rescued from its watery grave and sent to the Pensacola museum, which already had two such planes.

Acquired with the plane is a Mark XXIII torpedo, a self-propelled underwater weapon that carried 600 pounds of explosives.

“We lost many of those aircraft in the Battle of Midway,” Alexander said. “It was a very vulnerable airplane. In order to drop its torpedoes, it came in broadside and had to get within 500 feet of the target.”

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush piloted an identical plane, named “The Barbara,” in the Battle of Midway. It was shot down and his fellow crewmen were lost.

“He remained afloat and watched the dive bombers sink the Japanese carriers,” Alexander said. “He was later picked up by submarine.” Volunteers to help restore the plane are needed. Information: (386) 738-4149.

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