Printable View
The aircraft were buried at the end of World War II with some possibly being added a few months later, as they were no longer needed for operations. To avoid having them fall in the wrong hands, they were buried in their transport crates covered in waxed and greased paper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ned-to-UK.html
I figured some may not have heard this yet and how cool is that.
Very cool news. I think someone else posted about it the other day though. I can't wait to see some of these birds back where they belong.
Yea, I just noticed it had already been posted . I must have had tunnel vision when I looked through the topics to miss it . Oh well , still great to hear.
No worries. This is the sort of news worthy of a second thread!
There is some doubt about the final results if and when all this is found. So far it seems to be a story of how detectors see something large underground and maybe a small camera was sent down and found something. This is not the same as a real intact Spitfire sitting on the surface, but it may be in the end.
20 ft 0r 30 ft of earth is very heavy, it is possible that the weight might crush a normal shipping container.
Some have remarked on another site, (warbirdinformation) that the "magnesium rivets" would have turned to dust. And I have heard this story from some looking to sell other planes, especially in the U S. I don't think so. The rivets are an alloy with magnesium to add strenght at light weight. They don't spontaneously disingtergrate at a certain time, like a new car which may be pretty trouble free until the month after the warranty expires.
If the rivets are kept painted and thus moisture free there may last decades. There are Spit MK I from before 1940 that are in museums and they did not turn into a pile of dust. If the rivets were painted and then sprayed with a protective grease or oil, and not subject to flooding, the plane could be in excellent shape.
Remember the "perfectly preserved" P38's buried in a glacier......?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood
Marty, the P-38s and B-17 were much different. They crash landed on the glacier or force landed and sunk in the ice and over the years under more and more snow or ice. They weren't crated or preserved in any way. And one of the 38s is flying.
Who knows what the real story is on the Spits, if they are there at all and how they were put there? But they certainly could be in great shape.
This car was preserved in a vault and it didn't do so well..
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/16/us-timecapsule-car-idUSN1628272520070616
so this guy does all the work to find them....but who owns them? Burma? Did he set up a deal with the gov't ahead of time? I would be worried that going through all this trouble only to find out they won't even let you have ONE for your own use.....
I had seen the article about the car in the vault, it was much worse than I would have guessed. It seems that they will go through much greater efforts to restore aircraft , about a year ago another spitfire(P9374) was returned to the air that had crashed on a beach and sank into the sand during ww2 and there wasn't much left when tides pushed it back to the surface. They say the aircraft are in crates. How much of the aircraft would be there? Would the engine and propeller be installed and the wings be in the same crate as the fuselage or seperated ?
Does anyone know what weopons the Spitfire carry? It would be nice if they could all fly.
If I recall correctly, the standard practice before mothballing aircraft was to strip them of their weapons since the guns do better if stored separately.
Spitfire weapons guns vary with model. The early ones had 8 rifle cal .303 machine guns, light compact, very reliable and fast firing, but not much hitting power, especially against armor plate.
Cannons were tried, longer range,, very hard hitting, especially destructive with exploding shells, but they were heavy and had inital jamming problems.
By mid war, the MK IX had a very good combo of 2 20mm Hispano cannons, and 4 Browning .303 machine guns.
Mk XVIs had 2 cannons and 2 .50 cal heavy machine gun, and after some initial jamming problems the 50 was a good gun, but much heavier than the .303.
The Mk XIV which is likely the ones buried probably had the 2 cannon and 4 .303s.
Some later models had 4 cannons which pretty much destroyed anything hit, but of course was heavier.
As an experiment they tried one plane shooting at targets with all the guns, 2 cannons, 2 .50 cal and 4 . 303 which as the report stated was overkill as it tended to vaporize anything hit, and of course was way too heavy to be practical.