Warbird Information Exchange

As some of you may know from the FB page, I was in the process of recovering a Curtiss P40E-1 SN41-36485 from Lake Dorr, Florida. I discovered the wreckage back in August 2018 and then located the engine. The engine, mount, and propeller separated from the fuselage in the crash.
Since the wreckage sat on land owned by the State of Florida, I was required to obtain an archaeological permit called a 1A32 permit. Before I could apply for it, I had to obtain several other permits, hire an archaeologist, and several other tasks. I completed all of that and filed for the 1A32 permit in November 2018. It took 3 months for that to be approved after fulfilling different additional requirements the state placed on my project.
When we returned to the lake in February, we could not find the wreckage via sonar or by divers. We had severe issues with our sonar and GPS equipment due, we believed, to increased Naval activity at nearby Pinecastle Range.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to dive again until June 2019. As we were gearing up, I learned from a local that they had observed the "Navy" removing aircraft. It wasnt actually the Navy but he assumed that it must be for someone to be recovering the planes.Both planes, the P40E-1 and an SBD-5, were cut into pieces and loaded onto a barge. They were then trucked out using the east boat ramp. That's when I knew the GPS and sonar hadn't actually malfunctioned. The planes were gone.
At this point what I can say to whoever illegally salvaged the planes is nice move. At the very least send me a couple of pics of the P40E-1 so I can share them with the pilot's family. They were a huge part of the reason for the recovery.
If you know where these planes are or who took them, let me know. Feel free to PM me, email me at ingrampba@aol.com, or call me.

Such an awful shame to whoever recovered them illegally. Let's hope they weren't sold for scrap at the very least and that they still exist somewhere. Hopefully they will be recovered and whoever is guilty will be prosecuted.

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Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
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Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Sorry to hear this and it's literally in my back yard. My grandfather told me there was an SNJ in Lake Dorr but I had no idea about the P-40 or that the SNJ was an SBD.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

Post withdrawn

I would recommend an article called Never Forget, Never Give Up in the recent Warbirds International by David Thomas Kenney regarding his efforts to restore SNJ-2 2549.

Surely someone knows something about this. Either you know someone who just scored a P40 from a lake or you were part of it. Step up and say something. PM me.

Its certainly not the first time something like this has happened.

Getting a barge onto Lake Dorr would be problematic. I would try and track them down by asking around about the barge, surely that would be unusual on the lake.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

There are many homes and docks that surround the lake. Surely an airplane rising up from the bottom and getting trucked out via local roads would cause someone to pull out their phone and snap a photo. Interesting though....the lake was checked and no parts remain? separated engine/prop was recovered as well?

The separated engine and prop was recovered as well. The major components and structures of both planes are gone. Whatever remains are now considered to be part of a crime scene as they are evidence of the dismantling and theft.

Ingrampba

Real shame this has happened, I hope that you locate the aircraft in due time (shorter time the better). Should you not have the factory information, please drop me a PM and I'll forward, that way they can't use those numbers to register the aircraft or even sell in the community

Regards

Buz

Do you have any idea when they salvaged the aircraft?
My thought is that perhaps someone locally saw what was going on when you were first looking...perhaps someone was fishing nearby, etc.
Knowing that area, it's entirely possible someone decided to scrap them....you might check with nearby scrappers....the nearest is probably the one just south of Umatilla....

Good idea I will go by tomorrow and check.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

I hope you find it. So odd that this could happen and nobody seems to have seen it take place...

No offense, but anyone who could answer this question likely is the person who took them and I'd think that would be highly unlikely for anyone like that to admit this here (or anywhere, for that matter).

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

If you can nail down a date and time, I would go to the transportation department(s) and local law enforcement that might have access to camera data from nearby roads.

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Maybe try checking with some scrap yards in case someone dragged in something military looking.

I would sucks to think that someone might scrap it, but, some people just don't care and see only a dollar.