
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004070307
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO                                LENGTH: Short

RARE WWII BIPLANE RECOVERED FROM OCEAN

The Navy has recovered the only surviving example of a pre-World War II fighter from the Pacific bottom where it sat for almost 50 years.

Probes had shown the plane was in near-perfect condition for most of the time it was underwater. But a fishing net recently damaged the plane, which was pulled out of the ocean Wednesday, officials said.

The F3F-2 fighter, a biplane made by the Grumman Corp., was discovered more than a year ago in about 2,000 feet of water some 10 miles off the coastline.

The salvage effort, funded by the San Diego Aerospace Museum, was coordinated with a Navy effort to recover a helicopter that crashed in the same area last year.

The plane was ditched Aug. 29, 1940, when the pilot, Robert Galer, was unable to reach the aircraft carrier Saratoga.

The plane will be restored at the San Diego Aerospace Museum and then shipped to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla. It is the only surviving example of the Navy's pre-war fighter.

- Associated Press

by CNB