Spitfires buried in Burma in WW2 recovered

BritinAfrica said:
One of the things I miss about the RAF is the smell of burnt aviation fuel. I visited Southend airport many years ago to collect packages from their cargo sheds, immediately I could smell that wonderful odour of burnt fuel and in my mind I travelled back to the wonderful time of English Electric Lightning's taking off on reheat.

After watching the flight of those 16 Spitfires in the video, imagine what it would be like if those 20 Spitfires dug up in Burma were made airworthy. Absolute heaven!
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Especially as those twenty from Burma are all the same marque/model. Hell, even just seeing eight of all the same model flying in formation would be fantastic.
 
KevinTheCynic said:
Especially as those twenty from Burma are all the same marque/model. Hell, even just seeing eight of all the same model flying in formation would be fantastic.
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Very much agreed.

I'd love be on a balmly windy day with a grey overcast and watching 8 Spitfires roaring over a green pasture...

I'd take day off for that any day.

What also get's me wondering is what ELSE is out there in the Pacific theatre as well?

Maybe an abandoned Ki 43 or two in a jungle canopy somewhere?

Hell who knows what's still in Europe, you don't have to be in a isolated jungle to pull these amazing machines out of their time caspules in the muck.

Check this out!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAj0iBV3BfE&feature=player_detailpage"]Bf 109 Recovered from a Russian Lake! - YouTube[/ame]

Who knows what still maybe buried out there.

This thread goes to certainly show that.

Just like the P 38 that was found frozen in the Artic, and the B 29 submerged in Lake Meade.

Very very interesting stuff.
 
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There was a Wellington dragged out of a Loch in Scotland many years ago, she was a bit of a mess, when a battery was hooked up, the navigation lights came on. People present were those who worked at Vickers who built her. Sadly she will only be restored to static display only.

I remember a Bristol Blenheim restored to flying condition at Duxford a few years ago. After 11 years of blood sweat and tears she took to the air, only to do a wheels up landing on a golf course and written off due to pilot error! I bet he was cursed up hill and down dale. If memory serves me correctly, they managed to get enough money to buy another Blenheim and had her airworthy inside 18 months.
 
Yossarian said:
Very much agreed.

I'd love be on a balmly windy day with a grey overcast and watching 8 Spitfires roaring over a green pasture...

I'd take day off for that any day.

What also get's me wondering is what ELSE is out there in the Pacific theatre as well?

Maybe an abandoned Ki 43 or two in a jungle canopy somewhere?

Hell who knows what's still in Europe, you don't have to be in a isolated jungle to pull these amazing machines out of their time caspules in the muck.
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Interesting question here are a couple of video's of armoured recovery..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvveoQRVBxY&feature=relmfu"]STuG III pulled from a Bog - YouTube[/ame]

and

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bti62X4rRAw&feature=relmfu"]Baltic Sea - German Tank Recovery - YouTube[/ame]

Got to admire German ballbearing manufacturers of the 1940 as both tanks running gear still turned as soon as they were cleaned up.
 
MontyB said:
Interesting question here are a couple of video's of armoured recovery..

STuG III pulled from a Bog - YouTube

and

Baltic Sea - German Tank Recovery - YouTube

Got to admire German ballbearing manufacturers of the 1940 as both tanks running gear still turned as soon as they were cleaned up.
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It terms of extraction I figure better late than never. lol.

Now the mystery is how they got there. Also I wonder if the same could be done for Japanese vehicles at the bottom of Truk Lagoon?

Although all images there show them heavily encrusted with marine life, these tanks seemed preserved by the fact they were mostly burried by sand and where in a tidal zone in the Black Sea. Not the warm Pacific, but who knows?

Now what I would love to see, is someone ponying up the doe to pull this monster out.

b29-byobs.jpg
 
Hey Yossarian,you'll have to give me some more info because for the life of me I can't figure out what that pic is? The only thing recognizable to me is the diver!
 
KevinTheCynic said:
Hey Yossarian,you'll have to give me some more info because for the life of me I can't figure out what that pic is? The only thing recognizable to me is the diver!
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Cockpit of the Famous "Lake Mead Bomber". This aircraft crashed landed into the lake created by Hoover dam during a training flight in 1948.

What's interesting about this plane, is because it crashed in Fresh water it's remarkably well preserved. And is almost like a time caspule back to the begining of the Cold War.

Man I'd love to be that diver in the photo!
 
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True but at least now there is a chance of some closure given that they are going to search for his remains.
 
Yes it would seem they have...

Following the remarkable discovery, his nephew William Pryor-Bennett, 62, has spoken of his family’s hopes they may find the body and lay Fl Sgt Copping to rest with a proper funeral.
The defence attaché at the British embassy in Cairo is due to visit the RAF Kittyhawk in the next few weeks and has already confirmed a search of a 20 mile radius of the plane will be conducted.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...lost-Second-World-War-plane-to-be-buried.html
 
I hope miracles exists (Bedouins found him) and that he is still living in Egypt, but chanches are they'll find his remains within a couple of miles from the plane.
 
Ok folks, What happened here? Did they send some fighters back to the U.K?
Can somebody update this?
 
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