Pictures: World War II-era Fighter Raised From Lake Michigan

In Formation

Photograph from Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Four U.S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter planes fly in a staggered formation in this 1943 photograph.

The FM-2 Wildcat was the successor of the F4F Wildcat. It was quicker, climbed faster, and could fly longer than the plane it replaced. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, more than 4,000 FM-2s were built between 1943 and 1945.

Published December 11, 2012

Gauging History

Photograph by Scott Olson, Getty Images

Water fills gauges in the cockpit of the recovered FM-2 Wildcat.

The aircraft's engine had died during takeoff from the U.S.S. Sable, and the plane rolled off the bow of the ship and into the water. Amazingly, the pilot, Ensign William Forbes, survived.

"I remember him saying he'd never been so cold in his life," Forbes's daughter, Christine Smith, told the Daily Herald in Illinois.

(Related: "WWII Wreck Photos: 48 Tons of Silver Recovered 3 Miles Down")

Published December 11, 2012

Transport Prep

Photograph by Scott Olson, Getty Images

Workers from A&T Recovery help prep the Wildcat for transport to Florida's Naval Aviation Museum, where it will be restored and eventually displayed.

Once it's restored, the plane "will look like its ready to fly," said A&T Recovery's Lyssenko.

Lyssenko's company is on contract with the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation to recover historic aircraft from Lake Michigan. It has brought up about 40 planes since the 1980s, and Lyssenko estimates there are still about 80 planes left.

More than a hundred training planes crashed and sank into Lake Michigan during the 1940s, the result of rookie pilots trying to land used planes that had seen plenty of war action onto smaller than normal aircraft carriers, Lyssenko said.

"Apparently it was pretty darn tough. And Lake Michigan is not a calm body of water," he added. "It's pretty rough out there."

(Read about the shrinking Great Lakes.)

Published December 11, 2012

Air Supply

Photograph by Scott Olson, Getty Images

A worker with A&T Recovery stands on one of the landing gear tires belonging to the recovered Wildcat. The tire is still filled with air after spending nearly 70 years underwater.

Lyssenko said that as a teenager, he was interested in finding and recovering shipwrecks from Lake Michigan. "And then we found out there were these airplanes out there, so we started looking for them," he said.

Lyssenko has help from researchers to identify spots in the lake where planes reportedly crashed, but he discovered a long time ago that the reports were not always accurate.

"We started to figure out that the places where the wrecks were supposed to be were nowhere near where the crashes actually were," he said.

Lyssenko suspects the people aboard the carriers who were in charge of noting the positions of the crash may have been distracted by watching the crashes themselves. "That's just human nature," he said.

Published December 11, 2012

Ready to Move

Photograph by Scott Olson, Getty Images

A worker from A&T Recovery helps prep the Wildcat for transport to Florida.

According to Lyssenko, swift action must be taken to lift the remaining 80 or so planes still on the lake bottom. "One of the things we noticed on this plane was that its aluminum parts were beginning to show deterioration ... and that means the planes are being destroyed," he said.

The airplanes' destruction would mean the loss of a unique opportunity to remind Americans of their history, he said.

"When you bring a real object of history—in this case a freedom machine used by the greatest generation—and show that to people, it's amazing how much they appreciate their history," Lyssenko said.

"They appreciate what their grandfathers and fathers did to protect our freedom. So it's important that we get as many of these planes into museums across the country as we can."

Published December 11, 2012

See Next: WWII Wreck Photos: 48 Tons of Silver Recovered 3 Miles Down

Photograph courtesy Odyssey Marine Exploration

Published December 11, 2012