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On August 8 2023, the Lake Washington Helldiver flew again for the first time in 45 years.
The burned, sunken wreck that had spent four decades at the bottom of a lake lifted off the runway and climbed into the sky over Colorado, restored to the condition it had been in when it was new.
In July 2025, it made its first public flight in front of a crowd at the National Museum of World War II Aviation. Standing among the spectators was Matt McCauley, the man who had pulled the aircraft out of the lake as a teenager 41 years earlier. He watched the plane he had once kept as a rusted hulk in his driveway take to the air.
"They have performed a miracle," he said. "It's just incredible to see what they've done."
Today it is one of only about three airworthy Helldivers left in the entire world.
A dive bomber the Navy burned and threw away, found by two friends at the bottom of a lake, fought over in court, and rebuilt across 40 years, until the day it flew home.
This was the story of the Lake Washington Helldiver.
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