It seem that there may be 20 more Spits in the world very soon:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17710598 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17710598)
Well that is good news, hope they find them.
Still in the crates they should be in good nick!!
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing :)
The parts would have been well greased, in some cases it may even be just a matter of putting them together!!
Stop any sanctions now if they'll give us the Spits.
The sound bite about Burma in the news was...
On a scale of 0-10 on the road to democracy, Burma is approaching 1.
So don't hold your breath.
QuoteA Downing Street source said: "The Spitfire is arguably the most important plane in the history of aviation, playing a crucial role in the Second World War.
They not heard of Hurricanes then ? Spitfires were great but they always forget...
To be fair the hurri's moment came in the battle of Britain (where it downed 2/3 of the total kills of the RAF) and after that was quickly relegated to other theaters and slowly phased out as more modern aircraft came into service.
The Spit lasted the duration of the war and was the backbone of the RAF fighter force.
Sidney Camm, Hawkers chief designer put it the best in my opinion when asked about putting eleptical wings on the Tempest:
"If it didn't look like a Spitfire they wouldn't buy it"
Not quite Burma, Duxford near to where I live. You may wish to turn the sound up a little for this. :thumbsup:
16 Spitfires Flying Together The Sound of Victory " Duxford Airshow ". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6c3v9iihgw#ws)
Simply for the pleasure, enjoy. :D
Cool vid.
:thumbsup:
Amazing vid, I really have to get to Duxford one day :thumbsup:
Now imagine a wartime squadron was around 12 aircraft, imagine what it would have been like seeing 3 squardons being scrambled from Duxford in 1940!!!
Better yet, imagine W/C Douglas Baders Duxford "Big Wing" of 5 squardons of Hurricanes and Spitfires going over, that would have been so impressive.
I hope they play on flying them in airshows if they find them, and not just stick them in some museum.
Great Video, that is one of those videos that make one say, I wish I could of been there ;D
Finally some news on this article, looks like the digging could begin in January 2013.....hope they find out if there is anything there before the monsoon season starts or they might get a tad wet :D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20515659 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20515659)
I hope all the pilots are safe...
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8zcQG_2jyIE/TsD1YIHNbwI/AAAAAAAABYs/zAbhK1RijhE/s1600/600full-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-screenshot.jpg)
:LOL: GT
I saw it on the news that the dig was going ahead, thought of you DD :)
I shall be watching avidly to see how they get on.........I find this story very interesting as I'd never heard about Spits being buried in Burma before this story broke in April!
I seriously hope they make a documentary of the digs so we get to see the resyults if they find the aircraft.
Close encounters of the Merlin kind.
Should be interesting. Look forward to seeing the digs start in Jan. The article I saw on TV said 'all we know is that there is metal there. We can't tell scrap from Spitfires'.
The only way forward now, is to dig.
Work on the dig due to start:
http://news.sky.com/story/1033323/burma-spitfires-team-to-start-dig-for-lost-planes (http://news.sky.com/story/1033323/burma-spitfires-team-to-start-dig-for-lost-planes)
Not good news so far:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699)
I hope they find something.
I felt enlightened by the image of the Spitfire captioned 'The Spitfire's Winning Design' - great that they thought to put an engine in it...
It's even greater when you consider that the Merlin engine wouldn't have been developed at all if it hadn't been for the private funding of Lady Houston who paid £100,000for Rolls Royce to develop the PV 12 engine for the Supermarie S6 (Also designed by RJ Mitchell) Schneider trophy entry in 1931!!
Here is the latestet update I can find on this:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/team-still-chasing-spitfire-dream.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/team-still-chasing-spitfire-dream.html)
It would seeem that the Archeologists are still fairly optomistic at this stage.
I had assumed it was on a slow down due to the political situation in Burma.
Not sure where the troubles are occuring compared to where they are.
Bummer!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21483187 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21483187)
:bottom: Oh well it was worth a try...
It did seem a bit too good to be true, but I really was hoping
It seems there is life in this story yet:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/myanmars-spitfire-hunter-turns-to-ground-radar.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/myanmars-spitfire-hunter-turns-to-ground-radar.html)
Are we witnessing a modern day "Money pit":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island)
Did you see this more-close-to-home story about buried Spitfires again...?
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/spitfires-the-new-gold-rush-time-teams-tony-robinson-excited-by-prospect-of-finding-buried-spitfires.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/spitfires-the-new-gold-rush-time-teams-tony-robinson-excited-by-prospect-of-finding-buried-spitfires.html)
Naughty me, I glossed over that as I thought is was to do with Burma!! :Head-Slap:
So after a lull in proceedings we have new developments in this story:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/spitfire-hunter-planning-dig-on-far-east-return.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/spitfire-hunter-planning-dig-on-far-east-return.html)
This one is refusing to go away.
A nice picture on this article showing a spitfire flying past either The white cliffs of Dover or Beachyhead in Sussex, a familiar sight to us local boys :D
This would have been a common sight in the summer of 1940 as both places were right in the thick of the Battle of Britain.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/spitfire-hunter-insists-planes-buried-4039956 (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/spitfire-hunter-insists-planes-buried-4039956)
I said this was going to run and run ;D
Also I didn't know that there were even as many as 4 two seater spits in the world let alone in the same place as per the picture!!!!!
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/search-for-burma-spitfire-will-go-on-in-2014.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/search-for-burma-spitfire-will-go-on-in-2014.html)
There be gold in them thar hills ;D
that's awesome :D
So, the guy behind this has secured funing for a second dig probably in December or January on his second site of interest.
The people involved in the previous dig who no longer believe this story have also suggested that if there are crated aircraft buried they are more likey to be Auster aircraft, a general purose mache used for recon.
They appear to be having a little spat about this subject ;D
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/500k-to-keep-up-spitfire-search.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/500k-to-keep-up-spitfire-search.html)
More news on this one, the chap is nothing if not persistant!!!!
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/new-image-holds-key-hunt-5819555 (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/new-image-holds-key-hunt-5819555)
fingers crossed
Indeed :)
And now potential buried spits in Oz:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/press-releases/search-buried-spitfires-live.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/press-releases/search-buried-spitfires-live.html)
And now he's secured new funding to proceed with his search:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/press-releases/claridon-group-save-spitfire-project-burma.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/press-releases/claridon-group-save-spitfire-project-burma.html)
What's your feeling on this, DD?
To me it's looking more like a wild goose chase but I am sceptic. Formally a cynic. :-\
As I said before I admire his persistence. Are they throwing good money after bad, only time will tell.
There appears to be no official documentation to back this up, especially from the castle bromwich factory that manufactured the MkVIII spits in question as there are no serial numbers unaccounted for.
HOWEVER, the guy claims to have located evidence in the arcives to back up his claim, and it is just possible that a batch of aircraft could have been shipped off to the far east without having been allocated serial numbers first although it would seem unlikely you cannot discount anything in wartime Britain as we weren't as meticlous as the Germans when it came to record keeping. :LOL:
Could be some digging before xmas:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/david-cundalls-search-lost-squadron-spitfires.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/david-cundalls-search-lost-squadron-spitfires.html)
I hope his persistence will pay off.
I hope so, it makes a great story but I also hope it isn't just that.
exciting news, a find like that would be sweet :)
New news:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/burma-spitfires-dig-back.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/burma-spitfires-dig-back.html)
Nice to see he is sticking to his guns.
I heard a Spitfire today as it happens, was above the clouds, but no mistaking the engine. Probably doing a show or something.
Aren't you pretty near Duxford Freddy?
I'm in Norfolk, about 50-60 miles from Duxford. We have the odd display up here. We saw a load of vintage cars on the way home too, so something must have been on somewhere close I think.
Been quite a few on I think, I'm hoping to get to Shoreham this year, I might even get to see the Vulcan at last :D
Is she still flying then ?
http://www.vulcantothesky.org/appearances.html (http://www.vulcantothesky.org/appearances.html)
This years schedule, they managed to raise enough to make the fixes required to keep her aloft for another 2 years
Cool. I had seen that they were running out of money. There's nothing like seeing her fly, I hope you get to see her 8)
I will, if it kills me :LOL:
You want to come down to Shoreham for this years display?
Adult £18, Child £5 on Saturday 30th August. Tickets. (http://tickets.shorehamairshow.co.uk/)
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/hope-fades-burma-search-buried-spitfires.html (http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/hope-fades-burma-search-buried-spitfires.html)
Latest news not looking so good.
On the plus side I got me tickets to the Shoreham airshow so hopefully I will get to see the Vulcan weather and technical issues not withstanding, and better yet a pair of Lancaster bombers as the Canadian one is over here this year :woot:
Hope you get to see her. I had read about the Lancasters, I think they were at Clacton today. Would be impressive. I have seen one of them, but not the Canadian one. This will likely never happen again. I'll have to see if there is somewhere closer to me if they are doing a tour.
Sorry for going off topic, but just thought I would drop this in, has a little footage of Clacton. I so wish Lowestoft had not shut down.
http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2014-08-22/clacton-air-show-flying-high/ (http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2014-08-22/clacton-air-show-flying-high/)
What's more impressive is that they flew Vera over from Canada, a 69 year old bomber making a 2600 mile trip :o
I will try to get plenty of pictures and a bit of video at Shoreham if I can next Saturday :thumbsup:
Would be nice to see the photos and video. Enjoy it :)
So after a while of not hearing:
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/british-man-given-permission-dig-hidden-planes-burma.html
That sounds promising. thanks, DD! :thumbsup: