Spitfires found in Burma

[ZULU1]

Lets really hope this story is true...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti ... Burma.html

[wiskeyfoxtrot]

It would be great to see a National Geographic special on this !.. hope that the spits are in a sort of good condition!

[Bundy]

Amazing...really hope they can salvage enough to get them "up" and running again. True Legends of their day

[John Boucher]

These Spitties were buried in their transport crates.... I let my imagination run here - recovering an aeroplane in it's wrappings ready to fly - PRICELESS!!!!

[Boet]

Sorry to PP on your batteries, but the Spitties was not built to last 70 years. The rivits were made of a material that deteriorate so much with the passage of time, that you can grip any panel with pliers, and "undo" the panel like a zip. EVERY rivit will have to be replaced.......at the least! AND hope that there was no ground water involved. We have a similar story here at home. At one of our military fields a batch of Spitties, complete perfectly flyable aeroplanes, were just pushed into a trench, and covered up. They are still there??? Rest of this story? A BEEEEEG runway was built over the site. Will they ever let anyone recover the Spitties? Mmmmm?? Fat chance!! Only the one displayed at the Saxonworld museum was saved. FLOWN there.

[John Boucher]

Boet... are you lonely out there in Loeries ou broer? I don't have batteries

[Boet]

Jou batteries dan so pap? Lekker naweek, en vlieg veilig.

[John Boucher]

I got a Red Heart and am fuelled by solar cells

We gonna do that tomorrow... fly a bit that is!

[Jean Crous]

And just WHEN do you come and grace my little old airfield with your Cheetah ???????
Jean.

[John Boucher]

Soon bru.... soon!

[John.com]

Start Digging! Spitfires Cleared for Excavation

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/start-dig ... excavation

British aviation enthusiast David Cundall expects to begin excavation later this month to recover 60 or more Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIVs in Myanmar. Cundall discovered the cache of Spitfires earlier this year (http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/ ... -excavated) after searching for them for 16 years, but only signed a deal with the Myanmar government on Tuesday.

The aircraft were packed in crates late in World War II and buried by British forces at the end of a runway in what was then Burma, because they were not needed as the war was winding down. They are expected to be found “in good condition,” and are thought to be worth up to $2.3 million each in flying condition.

The Mk XIV Spitfire is powered by the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, a 2,050-hp follow-on to the classic Merlin. The -65 version of the Griffon powering the Mk XIV incorporates a two-stage supercharger and drives a five-blade Dowty-Rotol propeller.

Some 2,042 of the more than 20,000 Spitfires built were fitted with the more powerful Griffon engine, and only a handful of the 35 or so surviving Spitfires are Griffon-powered variants. World War II RAF pilot Don Healy of 17 Squadron, based in India, described the Mk XIV as, “a hairy beast to fly and took some getting used to.

Even with full aileron, elevator and rudder, this brute of a fighter took off slightly sideways.” However, Wing Commander (and Battle of Britain hero) Pete Brothers wrote, “It gave many a Luftwaffe pilot the shock of their lives when, having thought they had bounced you from a superior height, they were astonished to find the Mk XIV climbing up to tackle them head-on, throttle wide open!”

Let's watch this develop . . . .

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