After 68 years underwater, a WWII plane is back to its former glory [Video]

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — One FM-2 Wildcat fighter plane that currently resides at Air Zoo has seen better days.

The aircraft has spent the past nearly 80 years either at the bottom of Lake Michigan or in the museum’s workshop in Kalamazoo. But after all of this time, it’s nearly back to its former glory.

Air Zoo restoration workers and volunteers have spent more than a decade cleaning, rebuilding and replacing parts of the plane which cost an estimated $700,000. There has been an estimated 50,000 hours of work that has been put into the project since Air Zoo first took on the plane back in 2013.

“When I first saw this aircraft in Kenosha, Wisconsin, they rolled open this hanger door and I looked at that thing and my first response was I wanted to turn around and run the other way,” Air Zoo President and CEO Troy Thrash said. “I …