Grumman Style.

Very interesting, it looks in remarkable condition considering.
 
I'm a bit confused by this bit:

The FM-2 was commonly used during World War II as a training plane to help pilots practice landing on aircraft carriers, which were docked at the nearby Navy pier in Chicago.



Exactly how did aircraft carriers sail into Chicago?
 
I'm a bit confused by this bit:

The FM-2 was commonly used during World War II as a training plane to help pilots practice landing on aircraft carriers, which were docked at the nearby Navy pier in Chicago.



Exactly how did aircraft carriers sail into Chicago?


I missed that til you brought it up.
My guess is they built practice carrier decks and used those instead of the real thing and thats what was docked at navy pier.

Looks like I was right, they converted two paddlesteamers, into the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable.
 
My dad was on a "crash tender" out of Ft Lauderde, Fla., early in the war. They just sat around on a boat similar to a P.T. boat, waiting for student pilots to go in the drink.
 
My dad was on a "crash tender" out of Ft Lauderde, Fla., early in the war. They just sat around on a boat similar to a P.T. boat, waiting for student pilots to go in the drink.

The RAF had similar boats in WWII. They were the genesis of SAR. Which is what Prince William does.

Interesting 6 steps link between you and two Australian radio presenters.
 
I would still assess the Wildcat as the outstanding naval fighter of the early years of World War II ... I can vouch as a matter of personal experience, this Grumman fighter was one of the finest shipboard aeroplanes ever created.
—Eric M. Brown, British test pilot

Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, MA, Hon FRAeS, RN (born 21 January 1919) is a former Royal Navy officer and test pilot who has flown more types of aircraft than anyone else in history. He is also the Fleet Air Arm’s most decorated pilot and holds the world record for aircraft carrier landings.[1]

After World War II‚ Brown commanded the Enemy Aircraft Flight, an elite group of pilots who test-flew captured German aircraft. That experience makes Brown one of the few men qualified to compare both Allied and Axis "warbirds" as they actually flew during the war. He flight-tested 53 German aircraft, including the Me 163. He tested this rocket plane in powered flight as apparently the only Allied pilot (having done that rather unofficially, as it was deemed more or less suicidal undertaking due to the notoriously dangerous propellants, C-Stoff and T-Stoff), and the Messerschmitt Me 262, Arado Ar 234 and Heinkel He 162 turbojet planes.

All from Wiki.

His autobiography, "Wings on my sleeve" is a wonderful piece of understatement.
 
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