PPRuNe Forums - Spitfires found in Burma

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- - Spitfires found in Burma (https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/482576-spitfires-found-burma.html)

I have no inside information, but living on the Burmese border, the reason for the apparent delay becomes obvious.

The Monsoon season has only just begun.

Anybody trying to dig holes around here for the next couple of months will simply be making brown muddy mosquito ponds.

Then, there's the dissension that inevitably occurs over buried treasure to resolve.

Better they remain where they are for now.

Popping it back up for any news....

Drifting, but I read recently they buried the Have Blue aircraft a number of years ago...

Lockheed Have Blue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

The debris from both aircraft were secretly buried somewhere within the Nellis complex.[33 ]

Why would they want to bury them?

So that in 70 years time someone can start a rumour about three squadrons of brand new ones in boxes that they are going to dig up...

Re Have Blue.
Surely they burried it because it was top secret at the time it crashed, and it was done to stop anyone getting a clue about it's design and construction.:eek:

Surely if you were that worried you'd send the bits to a smelter to make sure? Again, (as with burying Spitfires) its hard to see any logic in it. That is, if they (Have Blue or Spitfires) were actually buried at all and it isn't all just a rumour...:rolleyes:

36 Mk XIV Spitfires "found"..

Would be good news if this is accurate.....36 Mk XIV Spitfires

Quote:

Aircraft enthusiast David Cundall, 62, has revealed he hopes to repatriate 36 of the Castle Bromwich-made fighter planes in November – at a cost of £1 million.

The move comes after the European Union and Britain lifted sanctions on the Far East country.

Mr Cundall, from Lincolnshire, said: “I hope to sign a contract within three months with the Burmese people to allow me to bring 36 of the crated Mark XIV Spitfires back to Britain, so British people can see them again in their former glory.”

The Spitfires were made in Castle Bromwich in 1944/45 and sent to Burma to help the fight against Japan.

But after arriving by rail at a Burmese RAF base, they were deemed surplus to requirements and were never used.

The fighters were buried in transport crates on the orders of Lord Louis Mountbatten. They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred to protect against decay.

Mr Cundall has spent 16 years locating the planes and trying to negotiate their return with the Burmese.

His goal is to see the Mark IV Spitfires going on display at air shows across Britain, as there are currently only 35 now flying in the world.

Once back in Britain, the iconic planes will be painstakingly renovated at specialist workshops, including in Birmingham and Cambridgeshire – creating around 300 jobs.

But the homecoming will not be the end of his long battle, which has so far cost him £160,000. In total 124 Spitfires were buried in Burma at former RAF bases,” Mr Cundall added.

‘‘If I could bring the rest home then I could create another 400 jobs.

“It has taken me 16 years of research to get this far and it’s not been easy.

“Spitfires are beautiful aeroplanes and should not be rotting away in a foreign land. They saved our neck in the Battle of Britain and they should be preserved.”

History buff Doug Pullen has called for one of the returning Spitfires to go on display in the Tyburn ward close to the former aircraft factory, now run by Jaguar, and Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, now Castle Vale housing estate.

Sounds as accurate as it did when it was first posted back in April. :ok:

Buried Spitfires ?

"All this will I believe when I shall see" (St.Thomas - the "Doubting Thomas").

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Danny42C

7-page thread from April: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...urma+Spitfires

Note that the original claim was "20 Spitfires"!

Maybe they've found some more.:O

Duncs:ok:

Now if I ran an impoverished 3rd world dictatorship and had 36 perfectly preserved piston fighters ideally suited to COIN ops, of course I would say, "sure mate, have 'em, I am sure you'll make a mint flogging them off."

Quote:

7-page thread from April: Spitfires found in Burma

Note that the original claim was "20 Spitfires"!

Ahh that's why I couldn't find the thread as I was searching in this forum not the whole site.

Mods...please merge this with the original

It looks like we will find out the facts in a week or three. Fingers crossed:ok:

Dozens of Spitfire planes to be excavated in Burma | World news | The Guardian

Well, its only the data plates that are needed to rebuild a "street legal" warbird. The BBMF had their wrecked and burned Hurricane (see below) completely rebuilt around the original data plate and fly it as if it was the original aircraft. Any recovered data plates will be worth quite a few pounds and sixty of them will more than recover his costs.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...vPnYmeUSBG5Phg

The son of David Cundall has just been on Chris Evans show.

He says they now have permission to start digging and it is "14 no." Mk XIV Spitfires with Griffon engines that they think they have found.

This little video includes views of what a Spitfire shipping crate looked like and what sort of effort would have been involved in burying the variously descibed 14, 20, "dozens" or 60 of them.

. . . bearing in mind that the records of Spitfire disposals shows scores of them being shipped back to UK in their original unopened crates and even more of them being transferred to the Indian Air Force.

. . . and the normal RAF method of disposing of surplus war supplies of course.

Can't wait. Maybe the value will drop so much with all these new machines online that they are quite affordable. I'll take two please.

Story appears in the local newspaper today.

Doesn't that video show Spitefuls instead of Spitfires?

Pedant mode off.