KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A WWII plane may never have another date with the sky again, but that doesn't mean it can't look pretty on land. After years of restoration, the FM-2 Wildcat is almost as good as new.
Eleven years ago, Air Zoo of Kalamazoo President and CEO Troy Thrash was met with an airplane broken in half, rusted and corroded. "I wanted to run the other way; I thought it was never going to look like an airplane again," he told FOX 17.
However, he was wrong. Over the last 10 ½ years, 1,500 people, including the air zoo's team of restoration employees and volunteers, have spent 50,000 hours doing something that many have never done, "which is build the back of an airplane, build the front of an airplane, and then somehow put them together," he said.
The plane was cut in half during a training mission on Lake Michigan in 1944. The pilot, Ensing William Forbes, was in the process of taking off from a ship when his engine stopped and he got run over.
According to Thrash, the tail was caught in the paddle wheel of the ship. It was recovered from Lake Michigan in December 2012.
"We trained about 15,000 new pilots to fly in World War II, but unfortunately lost about 130 aircraft to the bottom of Lake Michigan, this being one of them," Thrash explained.
Using guidebooks and manuals shared by aviation communities across the country, he says they've been able to use more than 50% of the original pieces to bring her back to life.
"There's no better way to really inspire young people about history than having them be able to come face-to-face with these important artifacts," Thrash told FOX 17.
Once the FM-2 Wildcat is completely restored, she's heading off to her new home at the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts.
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