Lake Michigan Carriers

1:700 version is available from Blue Ridge Models.   Resin, brass, and wood.   Check Freetime Hobbies for price and availability

Freetime is good to order from

I think that in itself it’s pretty remarkable.

This is a subject with really limited appeal on a decreasing order of magnitude as you get further from the Great Lakes.

According to Freetimes site, she comes with SNJ aircraft and TDN drones, the latter kind of odd.

I thought of scratching one. I did find scale drawings for the Wolverine, but the girder structure supporting the flight deck would take a lot of big PE, and making PE is a real chore for me :-(

Some shots of the drones. I thought that those two ships made a huge contribution to the war.

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/421/The-Great-Lakes-Paddlewheeler-Aircraft-Carriers.aspx

The Wiki article writer had a sense of humor.

”The only coal fired, fresh water, side paddle wheeled aircraft carriers that served in the USN”.

Well, there is the article from FSM, from 2006, I believe, about Bill Waldorf's scratch-built Wolverine in 1/72 or 1/96, depending on which source we read.  I believe this is the builder's own blog, at Modelwarships.com:

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/cv/IX-64/72-bw/wolverine.html

Here is another article at CarrierBuilders.net:

http://www.carrierbuilders.net/element/element.php?id=555

I used to have another build blog bookmarked, from another forum, but I've lost that one.

It's an astounding build, such a cool subject!

thank you, love the link

I live about 45 minutes from the lake and had no idea of it's history of naval carrier flight training. So cool.

Hope I never stop learning stuff from you guys.

That F4F that's on display in the terminal at O'Hare was pulled out of the lake.

I know it was. But I'm not nimble enough to have seriously wondered what it was doing here in the first place. I figured it had something to do with Glenview Naval Air station and never thought any further about it.

You could be right. I don't remember reading where it came from.

Bill

From the Chicago Dept. of Aviation website:

"In 1949, the Chicago City Council renamed Orchard Field as Chicago-O'Hare International Airport to honor Lt. Cmdr. O'Hare.

 The Wildcat fighter plane on display at the airport was recovered from Lake Michigan in 1992 and was expertly restored by the Air Classics Museum.

 The CDA first dedicated the fighter plane with great fanfare on November 20, 1997."

As a side note, the steamer Seaandbee (which was converted to the Wolverine) was the largest paddle-wheel steamer ever to operate on the Great Lakes.

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/f4fregistry/f4f-ohare.html

This aircraft was assigned to USS Sable.

Good info, Greg.

Bill, good job on the research. So you were right. That's a neat webpage, I bookmarked it for if I ever get around to trying to replicate that Wildcat.

I just can't get over musing over those retrofitted carriers steaming about on the lake.

Greg

I just can't get over musing over those retrofitted carriers steaming about on the lake.

Greg, if you haven't already seen it, PBS did a great film a few years ago called "Heroes On Deck - WW2 On Lake Michigan." It gave a great run-down of the carriers program along with reminiscences of veterans, and the recovery of various wrecks since the war...and narrated by WBBM/Chicago's own Bill Kurtis. If it's not streaming online somewhere, you might be able to find it "on demand."

Well worth a look: I think you'd enjoy it.

Thanks, Greg.

I'll keep an eye open for streaming. It's available for paid download here, and it's worth a click just to see the image they used for the DVD box art.

Except for those of us who have such fond memories of flying into Chicago Meigs I post this content warning, viewing the image might make your blood boil. The artwork is so cool it is worth it, though.

Back on point, $10 for the download isn't bad, might give it a go one day.

Sometimes it's easier to apologize later than to ask for permission.

Bill