"Dataplate" Spitfire restorations?
I'm writing a brief article for an American aviation magazine about the recent recovery of a Spitfire IXb from tidal mudflats in Normandy, flown by RAAF pilot Henry Lacy Smith.
The people who recovered the wreckage and apparently now own it run a World War II tourist museum in Normandy and have told me the airplane will remain there (and that Smith's remains will be buried in France rather than being returned to Australia, by the way).
Question: They have in hand the airplane's dataplate, serial number and all. I am assuming that there will be some serious attempts to buy this artifact if only because an apparently authentic Spitfire can be fabricated, and built from commercially available components, as long as the original dataplate exists. (The original wreckage, totally buried for 66 years in mud, does not look to me to be restorable, judging by photos, but what do I know?)
Am I correct in this supposition, or is it an exaggeration?
Two interesting things I've learned about this tragedy, in my research:
British newspaper reports about the recovery all identify the crash as having taken place in the Orne River, which is not really accurate: Smith ditched into shallow water in a tidal flat a couple of miles from the Orne. When the recovery took place, earlier this month, the airplane was dug free during low-tide periods and then attached to floats that lifted it at high tide. The wreckage and the floats were then swept several miles away by the outgoing tide, to the Orne, before recovery could proceed further.
Also, Smith apparently put his gear down for some reason, perhaps to wheel onto a landable pasture. This of course doomed him to the nose-first rollover and consequent trapping of the pilot in the cockpit when he actually had to land on the shallow water. I base this on the fact that apparently, locals have quietly known for years that the inverted airplane was there, because its wheels were visible just above the mud at low tide.
Anyway, my question is, "Can you build a Spitfire from a dataplate?" before we get inevitably involved in wheels-up-or-down arguments...