Warbird Information Exchange

Greetings
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were talking about Airplanes that were surplus at the end of WW2 He told me that their alot of planes that were pushed over the end of the runway into the lake at the Old Dallas Naval Air Station in Grand Praire Texas is this true ? is this the reason that the lake has been condemed for years ?
too much toxic waste ?

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Always Keep Em Flying !

Glen

Lookie Capt Jim! Wham! Wham! ...............................Termights

Interesting questions. I'm not from the area....heck never even been to Texas, but a quick search revealed that a cargo plane went off the runway into the lake in the late 70's or early 80's. The one runway ends right the edge of the lake, so I guess it's possible that there maybe something interesting just of the shore.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.719269,-96.960894&spn=0.3,0.3&t=h&q=32.719269,-96.960894

There were quite a few Corsairs, Maulers and Avergers stored in the weeds off the southwest end of the runway in the late 1950s. Don't know what their final disposition was, though. A friend I went to college with got to fish the lake as a teenager, since his father worked for the base fire department. This was in the early 1960s, and he used to snag all kinds of airplane parts, mainly from jets if I recall correctly.

is the lake a private or public or military base only lake? If public,lets go look! what the heck...

Sounds a bit like an urban legend to me. They brought back the old bombers from Europe and sat them in fields for years before melting them down <shudder> into ingots for the next generation of aircraft. Looking at some of the old Cold War bombers, they needed a LOT of aluminum! If they flew back bombers from overseas to scrap them for parts and metal, why would they dump something that was already stateside into a lake?

public..... since the base is no longer active, still in use for other things besides and airport though. not sure if its deep enough to hide anything large though.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fi ... ain_creek/

if you notice there is a ban on consumption of fish there sooo i dont know if i would want to go diving looking for stuff...... unless you want to grow a third eye or something lol

The prohibition on fishing and consuming the catch could very well be the result of the cargo plane crash in the 70's. At Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, GA, there was a B-47 that crashed into a lake just off the runway. The contamination remained in the lake for decades, and it became known as Dead Lake.

Walt

somebody with a magnometer and a fishing boat and a cooler full of drinks and some time should go check it out, what the heck...at only 24ft deep its got to be an adventure..

I know of at least one F-8 Crusaider and two Navy A-7's that crashed into the lake while my dad was working there in the Flight Test department. However, he said that several A-7's and F-8's crashed into the lake. The "cargo" plane that crashed int the lake was the XC-142 tilt wing. It was flying south across the lake and was in wing transition mode when the tail rotor shaft chrystalized and shattered, sending the airplane into a tumle. Impact point was the huge trees and marsh at south end of the lake.

He says the story of aircraft being pushed off into the lake is simply not true. His words: ""PUSHING" an airplane into a stateside body of water that is used as a back-up city water supply source is a BIT different than pushing damaged aircraft off carriers at sea."

All of the aircraft that crashed into the lake were recovered and ether repaired or scrapped.

I used to fly C-130s from there and you could see the vertical stab of an F-86 in the water on final approach to runway 36 when the water was low. At least thats what everyone said it was. I'm sure there's plenty more down there.

Remember the new law, Title XIV. The Naval Historical Center now has ownership of all submerged formal military craft. Clearly we should insist that they comply with the new law, and clear the lake bottom of all said contamination.

Pirate Lex

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