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Terry McCassey
29th Sep 2012, 05:03
My friend and I are going on a social to Myanmar in Janaury and we are both " in the trade " so to speak. Does anyone know if we can realistically get a chance to get near the Spitfire site which is of course now well documented. Any thoughts from you all much appreciated, thanks, Terry.

onetrack
29th Sep 2012, 11:29
Is there actually any definite moves to excavate the site? Or is there still a lot of crooked palms to be greased, before anything can happen?
The news feeds since all the hoo-ha about Camerons intervention in Apr/May has been precisely zilch.

I have extreme doubts about whether aircraft buried without massive protection from the elements could survive in any restorable condition, after 67 yrs under the ground, and under the effects of a tropical, monsoonal climate.

Yes, they may have been crated - and yes, they may have been coated in Cosmoline and suchlike - but none of this lasts more than a few years against the ravages of soil chemicals and water ingress.

Does anyone recall the recovery of the new, unused '57 Plymouth Belvedere in the time-capsule concrete bunker in Tulsa in the U.S. in 2007?
When it was lowered into the bunker, it was sealed and protected to the nth degree with all the high-tech, state-of-the-art corrosion protection - but when it was recovered, it was virtually scrap metal. :{

Fareastdriver
29th Sep 2012, 12:16
The crates would have rotted and collapsed under the weight of the soil. Think Terracotta Warriors or IKEA.

Load Toad
29th Sep 2012, 12:54
The Terracotta warriors were made by IKEA? Figures - in a sweat shop, self assembley?

Sir George Cayley
29th Sep 2012, 16:50
What would so many Spits do to the overall value of the marque if so many were exhumed.

Don't forget that so long as you have the correct bits of authentication you're on a winner.

Any car restorers care to comment?:E

SGC

Terry McCassey
30th Sep 2012, 03:26
Personally, I have grave misgivings about the whole story but thought I would ask anyway - thanks.

Fareastdriver
30th Sep 2012, 09:47
The Terracotta warriors were made by IKEA? Figures - in a sweat shop, self assembley?

You may not be so far off. This is from Wikipedia.

Studies show that eight face moulds were most likely used, and then clay was added to provide individual facial features.[20] Once assembled, intricate features such as facial expressions were added. It is believed that their legs were made in much the same way that terracotta drainage pipes were manufactured at the time. This would make it an assembly line production

Agaricus bisporus
30th Sep 2012, 14:55
The difference of course is that there is a shred, just the tiniest shred of evidence for the existence of the Terracotta Army which is more than you can say for the Burmese Spitfires. Or the dozen MB5s wrapped in marzipan under my garden. Or Alien abductions.

F4TCT
4th Oct 2012, 21:13
I was going to ask about these buried spitfires....

Obviously nobody has any further news regarding them - should they exist.

I honestly hope they do, and that there's something left of them to create another spitfire and get it into the sky - assuming of course they are found.

Dan

Stitchbitch
5th Oct 2012, 21:38
So long as you get the data plate, someone can build you a Spitfire around it.:ok:

Fark'n'ell
6th Oct 2012, 04:21
So long as you get the data plate, someone can build you a Spitfire around it
Mosquitos don't seem to be too much of a problem in this neck of the woods so I guess a Spitfire shouldn't be to difficult.

F4TCT
6th Oct 2012, 07:03
When this was first announced, I imagined the aircraft to be in wooden crates, and entombed in an underground concrete bunker, as appose to burried in sand/soil like a coffin would be.

Therefore in my simple mind,vthey could be uncrated, checked over and probably assembled over however many years.

Dan

Blacksheep
7th Oct 2012, 17:49
The only way you'd bury several crates of Spitfires would be to shove them into a disused quarry or claypit and bulldoze a covering over them. Trying to get a bunch of mutinous conscripts, all of them eager to get back to Blighty, to dig a big hole and bury a squadron rather than smash them up and set fire to the remains, seems to be rather optimistic. :rolleyes:

brokenlink
15th Oct 2012, 20:34
I agree Mig15, if the bits of Spitfire I dug up as a child on a crash site near my parents house in Biggin were anything to go by. The only bits that really survived in a recognisable state were any stainless steel bits and brass items. All the alloy has turned crystaline in the damp soil, would be much the same in Burma I fear.

Mark22
16th Oct 2012, 21:40
As no actual Burmese Spitfire structure has surfaced to date nobody at this stage knows the condition.

I personally have seen Spitfire crash wreckage come out of the ground in Europe with both ferrous and aluminium structure as crisp and clean as the day it went in. I have seen Spitfires recovered from salt water beaches that are now flying. I have seen Spitfires recovered from fresh water where the steel parts were rotted through. I have seen buried and smashed Spitfires recovered in Australia that are forming the basis of rebuilds to flying condition.

Time will tell, but I personally am optimistic.

Robert Cooper
17th Oct 2012, 18:06
It is being reported over here today that Burma has signed a deal with a British aviation enthusiast to allow the excavation of Spitfire aircraft buried by the British almost 70 years ago. The excavation is slated to begin by the end of October.

The Myanma Ahlin daily reported that the excavation agreement was signed on Tuesday by Director General of Civil Aviation Tin Naing Tun, Cundall on behalf of his British company DJC, and Htoo Htoo, managing director of Cundall's Burma partner, the Shwe Taung Paw company.

Bob C

Load Toad
18th Oct 2012, 02:52
Dozens of spitfires buried by the British in Burma during WWII will be excavated following 16 year hunt by aviation enthusiast | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219112/Dozens-spitfires-buried-British-Burma-WWII-excavated-following-16-year-hunt-aviation-enthusiast.html)

Blacksheep
18th Oct 2012, 07:00
20, dozens, 60? How many of the bloody things are there?

CoodaShooda
18th Oct 2012, 07:08
Our ever reliable national broadcaster is breathlessly reporting that David Cameron negotiated the agreement to recover 60 Spitfires that were buried "to prevent them falling into the hands of the advancing Japanese".

Oh, and each is worth $2.5 million. :rolleyes:

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing what might eventuate.

Mark22
18th Oct 2012, 07:52
Quote "Has anyone actually seen any pictures of the inside of one of the crates?"

Bore holes and core samples - yes.

Images - not to my knowledge.

A sprinkling of 'paper-talk' I'm afraid.

F4TCT
18th Oct 2012, 10:05
Im excited to see what happens with these spits, and would love to see some photos.

Only time will tell!

Dan

maliyahsdad2
28th Nov 2012, 09:08
BBC RADIO 2 news reporting today Spitfires found but no more than that, are they about to add more news or just rehashing the old story?

NutherA2
28th Nov 2012, 10:24
TV News interview indicated some progress.Apparently excavation is about to start & should determine whether the large amounts of metal which have been found are in fact Spitfires. IIRC the interviewee thinks he hopes to know something more in a month or so.

aviate1138
28th Nov 2012, 10:51
Sadly IMHO it will turn out to be a big con. Why did they bury new, flyable aircraft - in what must have been a massive excavation - in wooden crates, that will have behaved like Mosquito wings in the tropics and rotted away and why no documentation/eyewitness accounts/pics etc? I can believe they dug pits and dumped scrapped aircraft/ engines etc but whenever aircraft are recovered from anything other than ice or water or bogs are they is such awful condition? Why should these so called Spitfires be almost ready to fly???

Burma Spitfire dig - trickery.net (http://www.trickery.net/vb/showthread.php?t=60691)

In the picture of Spit crates the aircraft are being unloaded not packed. This is before they flew. I do hope I am wrong but I smell a huge rat [Burmese or British] to get loadsamoney... :rolleyes:

F4TCT
28th Nov 2012, 11:03
I think its more of the fairy tale bit of this whole idea that they would be 'flyable'. Im sure they will find something, however you have to think that they wouldn't have secured this deal or even risked wasting money if it was a load of hot air..

Even if they found an immaculate spit in the crate, its still going to be years before it would be ready to fly.

Dan

Load Toad
28th Nov 2012, 11:38
The report on BBC World News today is that they have been found, that an agreement has been signed with the Myanmar President to have them recovered and returned to the UK.

Agaricus bisporus
28th Nov 2012, 11:53
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

chemtrails
Flat Earth
Roswell
Apollo in the studio
9-11 by the CIA
Kennedy was a Martian
And as a finale, scores of aircraft are buried in wooden crates! As one does.
And not only that, they've survived 70 monsoons. Some wood. Some crate. Yeah. Right.

Been smoking those tarred joints by any chance?

Wander00
28th Nov 2012, 13:51
Bet all that is worth saving are the data plates, and they can come to UK in hand baggage!

I'll get my coat....................

PAXboy
28th Nov 2012, 14:12
that they have been found
Have they been found where someone buried the replicas last year ... hang on a moment Wander00, I'm just getting my coat too. :}

SpringHeeledJack
28th Nov 2012, 15:44
I was truly shocked to discover that you only need the data plate to be able to 'restore' such aircraft with non time appropriate components/ frame and so on.

I would be suprised if the crates and their contents will have survived no matter how well wrapped at the time.



SHJ

G-CPTN
28th Nov 2012, 15:57
BBC News - Hunt for Spitfires 'buried in Burma' after WWII (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20532791)

F4TCT
28th Nov 2012, 16:24
So in reality then they've found bugger all.

I assumed the dig was actually taking place now? Where as the news article mentions jan 2013. :ugh:

I hope they find something. I believe there will be a documentary at some point as a film crew will be there with them

Dan

beamender99
28th Nov 2012, 16:35
Dozens of WWII spitfires found buried in the jungle in Burma could be flying again within three years | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239771/Dozens-WWII-spitfires-buried-jungle-Burma-flying-years.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)

'It should take two to three years to restore them so we should see something in the next three years or so,' he added.

Squadron of 'lost' spitfires could be flying again in three years - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9708226/Squadron-of-lost-spitfires-could-be-flying-again-in-three-years.html#)

"We put a camera down a boorhole and went into a box and through two inches of Canadian pine," Mr Cundall disclosed.
"Yes, we did see what we thought was an aeroplane."



(http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bBOTTqvd0r3Pooab7jrHcU&u=DailyMail)

F4TCT
28th Nov 2012, 16:42
photos would be nice, or a blog of their work...

Fareastdriver
28th Nov 2012, 17:46
went into a box and through two inches of Canadian pine,"

Well, that's some poor old Tiger Moth's main spar gone.

Agaricus bisporus
28th Nov 2012, 17:46
Photos of men on the moon exist in droves yet some still persist...

However, when the war against the Japanese in Burma came to an abrupt end, the British South-East Asia command decided to bury them to ensure they could not be found by the enemy.

Just read that sentence and ponder on the logic of burying aircraft so the vanquished enemy of a war that has ended won't get hold of them. It's total, utter nonsense. The mans talking out of his "boorhole".

And this one - equally as idiotic;
"We put a camera down a boorhole and went into a box and through two inches of Canadian pine,"

Down the "boorhole" - oh dear, he's not up on even the simplest terminology, is he?
Then into a box.
Then through 2 inches of Canadian pine, that matchwood - er - timber so tough it survives 70 years underground in the tropics...(he's had it analysed, I expect, or maybe just recognises Canadian against Norwegian when he sees it at the bottom of a "boorhole".) Scuse me, but what's 2 in of pine doing inside the box? Is this another example of the accurate terminology/description we've already seen?

But the pristine Spitfire inside is, well, "what we thought was an aeroplane."

So he can identify "Canadian " pine but can't identify what he sees as an aeroplane?

Is it me or is there a shortfall in credibility in what's being reported here, even if we have suspended belief in the many practical reasons why 40 Spitfires could not have been buried in crates in the first place, and the similar number of reasons why they couldn't be anything but crushed rust and compost if they had been.

There are more convincing arguments for the earth being flat, simple as that.

500N
28th Nov 2012, 20:15
"Is it me or is there a shortfall in credibility in what's being reported here, even if we have suspended belief in the many practical reasons why 40 Spitfires could not have been buried in crates in the first place, and the similar number of reasons why they couldn't be anything but crushed rust and compost if they had been."


Agree.

If it had been most other people, once permission granted don't
you think you would be in a hurry to at least get one up or
at least drill a bigger hole so a decent camera could have a look ?

Classic drip feed of information over time with lots of pretty pictures
and hope of restoration to keep people interested / money flowing.

I reckon just a money grab.
.

F4TCT
28th Nov 2012, 20:41
Yea,

I also thought why the hell would anyone bore a hole in the 'protective' crate, thus allowing loads of water to get down into the crate until the bugger gets dug up. Doesn't make sense to me.

Seems to be a distinct lack of information on this project to be fair.

500N
28th Nov 2012, 21:36
This whole saga reminds me of a company called Metal Storm
that drip fed the media, investors et al information on new methods
of delivering fire onto the enemy.

Superb great videos etc. Had US Gov't involvement and all.

Went into administration this year.

Have a look on youtube if you want to see the videos of the technology.

aviate1138
12th Dec 2012, 13:28
I see a CGI image that makes me doubt even more that we will ever see anything other than smoke and mirrors from the Burmese jungle excavations......


Project Spitfire Blog: Aviation Archaeology | News | World of Warplanes (http://worldofwarplanes.eu/news/388-project-spitfire-blog-aviation-archaeology/)

News | World of Warplanes (http://worldofwarplanes.eu/news/?category=37)

500N
12th Dec 2012, 21:24
Agree

It is a very evocative image though, designed to
pull people in !!!

.

Mark22
3rd Feb 2013, 16:19
Still a few more weeks to run on this one. :)

Mark

Lone_Ranger
4th Feb 2013, 08:45
Mark22....
I heard of an old DF loop being used to hang-dry fish in a small village in Kuala jumper, further research led to a bloke down the pub who said he remembers taking it off a Bomber in 1944 just before they hid a load of them and re-sold the land to some farmer called jimpy or something.
I am now convinced there are at least 20 B17s buried under Mr Jojo Jumpit's grandson's outside toilet (in perfect condition obviously)

Please send 1.5 million to 'The Lost Squadron Returns PLC' and I'll keep 2 aside for you

Kind Regards,

Mark22
4th Feb 2013, 10:00
Do I detect a little humour, bordering on cynicism?

I am just back from Burma and like I said, there is still a way to go on this story.

It was a good few years back now but I once had a tip off, a rumour that there were two Seafires in a scrap yard in Warrington. Well c'mon, Warrington, so close to the active aviation preservation communities of Manchester and Liverpool.

I drove up from the South, checked it out...and bought them.

You may perhaps now know them as SX336/G-KASX & SX300/G-RIPH.

Mark

treadigraph
4th Feb 2013, 10:28
And a very welcome sight SX336 has been on the display circuit too - currently missed after her little ding in France, but I expect she's not too far away from getting airborne again...

cyflyer
4th Feb 2013, 11:38
And what a pleasure it was meeting you when you most kindly showed me those Seafires a few years ago Mark22. I appreciate it. I fully vouch what you have just mentioned about those Seafires. You are without doubt the leading authority on Spits, so people should listen when you have something to say ! Keep up the good work.

A.

500N
4th Feb 2013, 18:15
Mark

So, are you saying all that has happened in the last few weeks
is a smoke screen to get the media off their backs ?

Can you answer some questions ?

Why did it turn into such a media circus ?

Why did they dig where they did first ?

Why haven't the crate that has already been found
been drained and investigated ?


Yes, I am cynical but happy to be corrected if not fed BS
like what seems to have been fed to everyone so far.

Load Toad
4th Feb 2013, 20:56
Why do they feel the need to feed the media B/S to get them off their backs...? Surely media interest is needed to bring money to the project...?

So far they've not offered the tiniest shred of evidence that anything related to Spitfires is in the ground; new, old, crashed, parts of, or a crate belonging to...

500N
4th Feb 2013, 21:19
Understand first point.

I and others have said from the start that the media hype was
designed to attract money / investors.


Re second point, exactly. I, and many others could find more Spitfire bits and pieces in Australia than they have found (or provided evidence of).

And Mark doesn't help by putting cryptic posts up
"Still a few more weeks to run on this one."

Mark22
4th Feb 2013, 22:22
500N.

No smoke screen. The press, PR and the glow of a substantial documentary are the 'payday' for the sponsors Wargaming.Net. No Spitfires required.

Media Circus. Not enough pre -planning for contingencies by the Wargaming.net. Calling a full press conference before the show got on the road in Rangoon was ill judged in my view. With nothing to say, David Cundall was, and watch the body language in the video, reluctantly drawn to reveal that they had dug down to a wooden base that could be a crate, full of water. What wasn't made too clear was that this was the week before Christmas and at Myitkyina some 900 miles North of Rangoon and at a place best not to go at this time, particularly with an entourage of 21 people, with all the adjacent Kachin rebel problems. It was on the military base and was one of four locations where a license has been awarded to dig.

A further press conference was scheduled for two weeks in to the programme with no contingency should Spitfires not be found. Delays due to permits and bureaucracy and much geophysical work in photogenic locations saw the first week through with digging not starting until the Monday of the second week again in the photogenic location rather than where David Cundall, his Burmese geologist, his Burmese business partner and the eye witness indicated. This would not have been a problem with more than a week to go but toward the end of day two digging, the military/airport authorities pulled the plug on the grounds of danger to the airport cable infrastructure. This looked mighty thin to me as h/s was meticulously being adhered to.

Although David Cundall is the 'Project Leader' he was not leading the project. It was being lead from my standpoint by the Wargaming top echelon and the documentary director with his team of about ten.

You then had the situation of the world's press and TV starting to arrive and nothing to tell them or show them. Wargaming sensibly decided not to present David Cundall to the BBC but fielded the 'conflict archaeologists' who on the strength of one 2-3 metre deep trench down to 1945 level advised the BBC there were no buried Spitfires in Burma, full stop...now go home, press conference cancelled...and you have read the result. Not good.

I know all of the principal three parties who were competing for the digging license. I am totally independent of all three and funded my own trip and accommodation.

I am still open minded and on balance, and with a few things it would be inappropriate to mention at this time in public, still think there is something in all this.

Currently, today, with the Wargaming and the documentary circus now departed, David Cundall is back at Mingaladon, his Burmese geologist having located 15 points of geophysical significance in the target area this past week including two of particular interest. Permission to dig on these points is being sought.

No Spitfires have been found. There may be no Spitfires to be found but for sure, as I said, there is still way to go on all this.

Mark22

500N
4th Feb 2013, 23:25
Mark

Thank you.

At last, a straight answer.


I hope Spitfires are found, and if not, so be it but no way should
they have subjected everyone to such a circus IMHO.

Probably a few lessons might turn up in uni courses on how
not to plan activities involving media and PR !!!

Thanks again :ok:

500N
5th Feb 2013, 04:06
Mark

Could you expand on this ?

"I know all of the principal three parties who were competing for the digging license."

So are you saying that wargaming was not the only one trying to get a licence to dig ?

Others were trying to jump on David's find ?

Thanks

Load Toad
5th Feb 2013, 06:16
Three parties - competing for one license...?
Three separate unrelated parties competing for a license to dig in Myanmar at one location - or several locations...?
Which Ministries within the government have to 'approve'..? By fair means or foul.

Mark22
5th Feb 2013, 06:18
500N

At least three parties applied for the license to dig.

David Cundall sponsored by Wargaming.net

An Anglo-Israeli group who have been on the trail of these 'Spitfires' for almost as long a David Cundall and have been awarded the license in years past. Friendly rivals.

A UK group with major Spitfire interests who at one time looked to be linking up with David Cundall.

The license was awarded in October 2012 to the David Cundall group to dig at four locations in Myanmar.

Mark22

500N
5th Feb 2013, 07:57
Thank you.

Interesting to say the least.


Please keep us informed, you are much more interesting
than watching PR cluster fcuks on TV or reading in the newspaper :ok:

Load Toad
5th Feb 2013, 08:45
Thanks for the information - I can't understand why the Wargaming group didn't explain this as it would have explained the complications (to an extent) of doing the dig and also enhanced credibility if three groups were interested enough to want to get licenses to dig.

I'll be taking my bucket & spade to Yangon on 20th and having a dig around the hotel...

500N
5th Feb 2013, 08:54
Load Toad

Agree, all it would have taken was less media conferences and one
explanation.


Mark22

You mentioned "No smoke screen. The press, PR and the glow of a substantial documentary are the 'payday' for the sponsors Wargaming.Net. No Spitfires required."


Sorry, but in my mind, payday would have been worth even more
if they had
1. Handled the whole thing better - as you have said
2. Had at least something to show for it - even the crate
3. Of course, found anything Spitfire related.

You don't get paid for digging the gold mine but when you find gold :O


I hope the documentary is not as much a CF as the way they
ran this whole shebang.

Blacksheep
8th Feb 2013, 20:23
Time Team were excavating a B26 crash tonight. Even though the large pieces were wreckage, their condition was a good indication of what aircraft structure is like after 67 years buried in wet ground. The data plates would survive very well, along with the engine blocks and propellors, not much else.

GQ2
10th Feb 2013, 12:25
They may be there - who knows, but there is no precedent for it whatever. However, so far, all we've seen is hot air and a circus of hangers-on.
One would have thought that after weeks at former RAF bases that they'd have found something....anything fer chrissakes. One tiny part of a Spit. A bolt, a rivet.. Apparently not. Zip.

I really hope they find them, if they are there, but so far, everything seems illogical. Big metal items, easy to spot on geophys, then they deliberately dig in the wrong place..... Talk of 'evidence' - but none shown. No wonder the whole fiasco has become the butt of endless humour.

The time for puplicity is after one has found something, not before.....:hmm:

Agaricus bisporus
10th Feb 2013, 14:21
Richard III was not found "on a whim". He was found after a great deal of careful research and a considerable portion of luck. But all based on careful research. That's nothing to do with "whim". Imagining bodies to be buried is not whimsy. Imagining whole squadrons of aircraft so treated most certainly is.

F4TCT
10th Feb 2013, 14:28
Cundall's meant to have spent the last 17 years researching also..

Wonder when the next update in this spitfire story will come out..

I.e the waterlogged crate.

Weeds round the prop
12th Feb 2013, 06:16
Of course we all wish this story has a fairytale ending, apart from the owners of Spitfire airframes as pension-pots, but in reality Blacksheep's post #13 will most likely take the award for most prescient post. The oiks tasked with getting rid of the airframes would, of course, have had no sentimentality and would have pushed the crates together and doused them with Avgas. Burial would most probably have been a time consuming luxury at a time of considerable urgency.
Weeds

Agaricus bisporus
12th Feb 2013, 13:15
Self-evident, Weeds, but in a world where a large % of the population believe in God, Astrology, Aromatherapy, Creationism, Chemtrails, Alien Abductions and the Glitterati (or whatever the worlds "rulers" are called) we shouldn't be surprised at the willingness of some to cling doggedly to chimera like this on the grounds that because they'd like it to be true it probably is, and as you can't disprove it it must be true. Its just the spurious "logic" of evidence-averse new age hippie woo woo I'm afraid.

Peter-RB
14th Feb 2013, 20:38
Taking somthing stronger than Earl Grey, and reading Ryder Haggards
" King Solomans Mines", springs to mind.

But then a pal of mine knows where there are abosolute hundreds of Gold and Silver bars in only 20 feet of water..."Anyone any interest"

Peter R-B ;)
Lancashire

Load Toad
16th Feb 2013, 06:55
No Spitfires: BBC News - Search for 'buried Spitfires' in Burma called off (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21483187)

500N
16th Feb 2013, 09:06
I would have thought they would have searched the archives
and worked out that not enough Spits were delivered and
those that were were exported in 1946 BEFORE spending
the money on an expedition and an excavation ?

F4TCT
16th Feb 2013, 09:08
Me too,

So much for his years of research. Its a shame but I think we all knew this would happen, although nothing much further has been said about the crate full of water?

Is is its only contents water?

Dan

500N
16th Feb 2013, 09:55
Too embarressed to look ?


Re the research, I agree.

With modern telephones, email, all other types of comms / internet
and quick plane flights, not sure they did due diligence.

I collect old things (pre WW1 and 11), it's amazing how quickly
you can do research and get info from around the world
if you really want, including talking to original family
members.

603DX
16th Feb 2013, 10:06
Now what does this sad saga say about the veracity of those British, American and local "eye witnesses"? Would not be totally surprising if writs started flying before long, in view of the huge amounts of money wasted, not to mention the red face of a certain well known politician ... :uhoh:

Agaricus bisporus
16th Feb 2013, 14:01
Not to mention the red faces of the dozens here who stoutly professed belief in this ridiculous chimera and hotly defended it against all logic and total absence of evidence.:ugh:

aviate1138
16th Feb 2013, 21:43
Surely someone can find the appropriate quatrain from Nostradamus to cover this "event"? :rolleyes:

This has come up on Avweb.

Funding Pulled For Spitfire Dig
The English farmer who claims there are more than 100 Spitfires buried in Burma vows to continue his search for the aircraft even though his financial backer has pulled out. David Cundall says the reason the six-week effort to find some of the Second World War aircraft has failed is that the government won't allow him to dig in the right place. He said it now seems the aircraft, which eyewitnesses have told him were packed in grease paper and enclosed in crates, may be near or even under a runway at Rangoon's international airport. The airport used to be RAF base Mingaladon. "The authorities will not give us permission to dig because of the risk of undermining the active runway," he said in an email to AVweb. He declined to be interviewed. Cundall says he has heard from eyewitnesses who said they saw large crates being buried at other locations and Cundall wants to dig there. "Getting permission will take months," he said.

Last week the Belarussian video gaming company Wargaming.net announced it was withdrawing financing for the project because it became convinced the buried Spitfires were a myth. "No one would have been more delighted than our team had we found Spitfires," said Wargaming.net spokesman Tracy Spaight. "We knew the risks going in, as our team had spent many weeks in the archives and had not found any evidence to support the claim of buried Spitfires." Magnetic anomalies turned out to be pieces of war-era metal runway and the gaming company's study of RAF records indicated the surviving Spitfires that were brought to Mingaladon were sent back to England after the war. Cundall says he's undeterred. "I want to come back when we have permission to dig at the other site," he said.

-

The man seems obsessed with a notion [no actual proof] that he will find Spitfires [of which there seems to be no record] despite comprehensive documentation for every Spitfire ever made.
He should really return home and stay quietly on his farm before he is put in the funny farm.....

Lone_Ranger
23rd Feb 2013, 16:10
Still a few more weeks to run on this one. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/smile.gif

Mark


Update please :E

F4TCT
23rd Feb 2013, 18:18
think of a bendy snake type drill. they could easily bore a hole right under the runway some 5cm thick and cause no issue at all, having a poke around for crates. expensive yes but far cheaper than digging up and repairing a runway.

cyflyer
23rd Feb 2013, 18:55
they could easily bore a hole right under the runway some 5cm thick and cause no issue at all, having a poke around for crates.

That would be an entirely pointless exercise. If there was anything like crates with Spitfires under the runway they will stay there for all eternity, because no government, however friendly, will close the airport and dig up the runway, however much they are worth, even if your snaky drill did find a wooden crate.

F4TCT
23rd Feb 2013, 19:26
yeah thats true.

Load Toad
24th Feb 2013, 00:27
Rangoon airport is flat as a pancake - strangely enough like most airports & it is very active. It is a large area too so - where to 'drill'?

The surrounding land is pretty much flat as a pancake.

Anything buried would have required a massive amount of earth shifting. I can not see they would even have bothered trying to do that.


David Cundall is befuddled or a fantasist or trying to scam money.

I did note that PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) is so common in Rangoon it was used in fencing around some of the churches & other buildings. I wonder how long that's been there? So no doubt Mr. Cundall will keep finding that.

The PSP they found... Spitfire hunter pledges the search will go on - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/9813074/Spitfire-hunter-pledges-the-search-will-go-on.html)

F4TCT
24th Feb 2013, 10:53
Sounds like a right cluster****.

being fair to cundall, he's determined which is good and I hope, as do many something is found.

I wonder what sort of money is involved here?

Lone_Ranger
22nd Mar 2013, 22:32
Quote:
Still a few more weeks to run on this one. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/smile.gif

Mark

Update please http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/evil.gif
http://www.nathanandbecky.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Tumbleweed_rolling_2.jpg