Possible Fighter Plane Part Recovered in Florida

News October 1, 2020

(U.S. Navy Photo 80-G-41099)
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Guadalcanal Grumman F4Fs
(U.S. Navy Photo 80-G-41099)

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA—The St. Augustine Record reports that parts of what may be a twentieth-century plane washed up on northern Florida’s Atlantic coast after storms last week. Chuck Meide of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum said the metal structure could be from a Grumman F4F Wildcat, a fighter plane used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Meide and his colleagues have permission from the Navy to store the part in water so that the metal, which has been damaged by salt water, doesn’t deteriorate from exposure to the air, and create a 3-D model of it. “We essentially try to learn everything we can about it and possibly tie it to historical records,” Meide said. To read about the impact of the D-Day Allied invasion on the French landscape, go to "Letter from Normandy: The Legacy of the Longest Day."

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