@ Chicago, IL
October 2025
This Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat on display at O’Hare International Airport serves as a permanent memorial to the airport’s namesake, WWII Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Cmdr. Edward “Butch” O’Hare. This specific aircraft was recovered from the bottom of Lake Michigan in 1991, nearly fifty years after it ditched during a carrier qualification training mission from the USS Sable. Following a meticulous restoration by the Air Classics Museum, the fighter was repainted in the “White F-15” livery to match the plane O’Hare flew when he single-handedly defended his carrier against nine Japanese bombers in 1942. The exhibit was officially dedicated in 1997 and later moved in 2014 to its current location in Terminal 2. Introduced in 1940, close to 7,900 Wildcats would be delivered during WWII. Nearly three quarters of this total were built by the Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors, which took over production in 1942. During the course of the war, Navy and Marine Wildcats destroyed 1,327 enemy aircraft at a cost of 178 aerial losses.