I hadn't heard about this until today, but apparently Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen funded a search to locate the USS Lexington and announced yesterday that they were successful.
Article here: Lady Lex found
The military aviation junkie in me is especially geeked about this shot:
Great find, and that Wildcat is in amazing shape. Helps that it's very deep there, I suppose.
Pretty sure this is a TBD-1, which would be pretty incredible.
Paul Allen has a very large collection of some very nice aircraft and other WWII artifacts:
http://www.flyingheritage.com/
The collection has some very unique aircraft, especially foreign versions, most of which are flyable (though some are not flown because they are one of a kind).
That may be the last Oscar.
I think bill gates proved the titles claim.
spitfirebill said:That may be the last Oscar.
The site notes that's it's the only 1b version in existence. It is flyable, but they won't fly it. Years ago I remember seeing a very rough on (like mostly pieces) in a large crate in Arizona.
Shortly after the end of the war, this Oscar was found in dense jungle near an airfield on Rabaul. The fighter had severe engine and propeller damage from a crash landing, but it was being repaired by Japanese soldiers. It was crated and shipped to Australia where it passed into the hands of many private owners. The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum acquired the plane in 1999.
This Ki-43 is the last known type-Ib Oscar left in the world. While it has been restored to flyable condition and has flown in the past, it may never take to the skies again due to its extreme rarity.
And the flying heritage museum also houses their combat armor collection- they have a tankfest every year thats pretty sweet.
How do you lose the position of one of the first aircraft carriers when 85% of the people on board survived.
wearymicrobe said:How do you lose the position of one of the first aircraft carriers when 85% of the people on board survived.
It had two miles of water to fall through, with currents and everything. Knowing where it went under is a good starting point, but it's not like the ship just went straight down from there.
In reply to wearymicrobe :
I’m guessing not a lot of people could afford to go look for it.
There were only 3 TBD Devastators known in existence. Unfortunately for Allen, the Navy still holds claim on all their ships and aircraft. They will claim this one. They want one bad.
Here's that same TBD in 1942.
Mr. Allen has been on a roll, what was left of the Musashi, Lady Lex, Indy, and I'm pretty sure he found the Juneau here recently as well.
In WW2, they basically just put in a best guess for where ships went down. It didn't really matter to them. They'd just build another and draft a couple hundred more people to operate a new one.
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