Jump to content

A and T Recovery

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Taras913 (talk | contribs) at 21:46, 29 December 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A and T Recovery
IndustryAircraft salvage
Founded1988 (1988)[1]
FounderAllan Olson and Taras Lyssenko
Websiteatrecovery.com

A and T Recovery (Allan Olson and Taras Lyssenko) is an American company that has the primary purpose to locate and recover once lost World War II United States Navy aircraft for presentation to the American public.[2] They have recovered nearly forty such aircraft, mainly from Lake Michigan.[3] The aircraft were lost during the aircraft carrier qualification conducted out of the former Naval Air Station Glenview that was located north of Chicago, Illinois. The Navy had used two ships, the USS Wolverine (IX-64) and the USS Sable (IX-81), to qualify thousands of pilots.[4]

History

A and T Recovery began their recovery efforts in the 1980s and continue to the present day. As part of the aircraft collection of the US Navy, the aircraft located and retrieved by A and T Recovery are managed by the National Naval Aviation Museum, which is under the direction of the Naval History and Heritage Command.[5]

Funding

10 USC § 2572(b)

10 USC § 2572 (b), a section of United States Code, allows the Museums of the US Department of Defense to exchange condemned and/or obsolete military material for similar materials, equipment, search and recovery services, restoration services, and educational programs.[6][7]

During the 1990s, the Director of the National Naval Aviation Museum used this section in law to fund the work of A and T Recovery along with the restoration of the rescued aircraft.[8]

The aircraft located and recovered over the recent years have been funded by private donations. That funding comes thru the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Inc. which oversees the contracting for all activities of the effort.[9]

Lake Michigan Projects

Historically significant U.S. Navy aircraft have been located and recovered by A and T Recovery, these include the Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber Bureau Number 2106 which survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway[10][11] the only Vought SB2U Vindicator Scout-Bomber known to exist,[12][13] the Grumman F6F Hellcat Fighter Bureau Number 25910,[14] and an extremely rare early "Bird Cage" Vought F4U-1 Corsair.[15][16]

The following are examples of the many A and T Recovery rescued aircraft and their present display locations:

The only known to exist Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator Bureau Number 1383 on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Recovered by A and T Recovery from Lake Michigan in 1990. Photo courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum.


  • Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat 25910 National Naval Aviation Museum[18]
Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat Bureau Number 25910 on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Photo courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum

Along with aircraft the team has been well known for locating shipwrecks, the most notable is the German Type UC III submarine SM UC-97, a World War I U-Boat.

At the end of World War I the German Navy was forced to surrender a good number of their war ships to the World War I Allies. The records indicate that as many as 172 submarines (U-boats, Unterseeboote) were surrendered. Many of these vessels were brought Harwich,[26] England then “allocated” or “assigned” to the different Allied countries, with 6 dedicated to the United States of America. The UC-97 was one of these vessels. She was brought to the US and toured the Great Lakes under the command of Charles A. Lockwood. He detailed his experience with the submarine in his book Down To the Sea in Subs, My Life in the U.S. Navy.[27]

On the morning of the 7th of June, 1921 the UC-97 was sunk by the training ship U.S.S. Wilmette formerly the Eastland. A and T Recovery located the resting point of the vessel in 1992.[28][29]

The Thomas Hume shipwreck

The Thomas Hume was a Great Lakes schooner used to carry lumber. She left Chicago May 21, 1891, but never arrived at the destination port.[30] A and T Recovery located her nearly intact about fifteen miles off of Chicago.[31]

The Early Holocene Forest (Olson Site)

The most unusual find of the group is the Early Holocene Forest. In 1989 while searching for aircraft in southern Lake Michigan A and T Recovery located a number of tree stumps intact on the lake’s floor.[32][33][34][35] The stumps were the remains of a deciduous forest that radiocarbon dating showed to be over 8,000 years old.[36]

Beyond Lake Michigan

San Diego TBD Devastator

One of the long sought after historic aircraft that there is a desire to be added to the collection of the National Naval Aviation Museum is the Douglas TBD Devastator. A and T Recovery sought to retrieve one of these aircraft so they located TBD-1 BuNo.0377 that had been lost off the San Diego coast.[37][38] The latest filming of the aircraft has shown that the ocean environment has damaged her to a point that she cannot be recovered.

San Diego SB2C Helldiver

In 2009, a sport fisherman, Duane Johnson, saw an airplane on his fish finding electronics while he was traversing Lower Otay Reservoir.[39] The airplane was a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver that had ditched in the reservoir because of engine failure while conducting dive bombing practice toward the end of World War II. In August 2010 A and T Recovery, with the support of San Diego Park Rangers, removed the aircraft and delivered it to the National Naval Aviation Museum where it awaits restoration and public display.[40][41]

D. Blan Stewart

On Halloween (October 31) afternoon, 1988 D. Blan Stewart flying a single engine aircraft disappeared over Lake Martin, Alabama. Soon after the FBI began a manhunt believing he had faked his death to avoid prosecution.[42][43] In November 1990 A and T Recovery located the aircraft at the bottom of Lake Martin, Mr. Stewart was in the cockpit.[44][45]

References

  1. ^ "Corporation File Detail Report". Illinois Secretary of State. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  2. ^ "TV Special-Lake Michigan Carriers and the Aircraft Recovery Operations".
  3. ^ "Chicago's Sunken Treasures". Archived from the original on 2014-10-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "The Navy's Historic Aircraft Wrecks in Lake Michigan". Archived from the original on 2006-12-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "TV Special-Lake Michigan Carriers and the Aircraft Recovery Operations".
  6. ^ "10 USC § 2572(b)" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Department of the Navy Museum Exchanges" (PDF).
  8. ^ "Navy Aircraft as Artifacts". Archived from the original on 2000-08-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Aircraft Restoration".
  10. ^ "SBD Dauntless BuNo 2106".
  11. ^ Two Navy Crosses in SBD-2 BuNo 2106.
  12. ^ "SB2U Vindicator".
  13. ^ The Last Vindicator SB2U-2 Up From Lake Michigan.
  14. ^ "Restored Treasure: Recovered Navy Hellcat Dedicated at Pensacola".
  15. ^ "World War II plane pulled from Lake Michigan".
  16. ^ Bringing Up a Birdcage Corsair.
  17. ^ "World War II fighter plane recovered from Lake Michigan".
  18. ^ "WWII Hellcat recovered from Lake Michigan".
  19. ^ The Last Vindicator, SB2U-2 Up From Lake Michigan.
  20. ^ "Airport honors original O'Hare Memorial to downed pilot will house rebuilt World War II fighter".
  21. ^ "Midway delivers fitting tribute".
  22. ^ "The Battle of Midway Memorial". Archived from the original on 2014-12-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "Air Zoo to restore historic WWII fighter plane after 68 years at Lake Michigan bottom".
  24. ^ "WARBIRDS: DOUGLAS SBD DAUNTLESS".
  25. ^ "Restoration on SBD-3 Reveals Its History" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "Harwich, Essex: Over 100 U-boats Surrender".
  27. ^ "Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Jr". Archived from the original on 2013-05-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "Chicago's Other U-boat".
  29. ^ "WWI German Submarine Has Underwater Lake Michigan Grave".
  30. ^ "Thomas Hume".
  31. ^ "Lost To The Lake: The Disappearance of the Thomas Hume".
  32. ^ "A Sunken Forest Shows Lakes' Past".
  33. ^ "Ancient Stumps in Lake Michigan".
  34. ^ "Our Ancient (?) Shoreline".
  35. ^ "An early Holocene oxygen isotope record from the Olson buried forest bed, Southern Lake Michigan".
  36. ^ "Discovery and Preliminary Investigations of the Remains of an Early Holocene Forest on the Floor of Southern Lake Michigan" (PDF).
  37. ^ "Rare WWII Plane Discovered Off Local Waters".
  38. ^ "'Holy Grail' of Warbirds Found off San Diego".
  39. ^ "Historic Navy Plane found in Otay Lake, San Diego, CA". Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  40. ^ "Rare World War II dive bomber raised from reservoir".
  41. ^ "World War II plane raised from San Diego reservoir". Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ "Twins say father could have faked death".
  43. ^ "Stewart in TV crime programs spotlight".
  44. ^ "Finding of Plane Wreckage Ends Mystery About Missing Executive".
  45. ^ Lake Martin, Alabama's Crown Jewel, Blan Stewart.
The only known to exist Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator Bureau Number 1383 on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Recovered by A and T Recovery from Lake Michigan in 1990. Photo courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum.
Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat Bureau Number 25910 on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Photo courtesy of the National Naval Aviation Museum
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_and_T_Recovery&oldid=817672110"