Update to "Brits to Uncover 20 Spitfires in Burma"

[dkryan]

From Aero News Network - 12/01/2012 issue 156/01
(www.aero-news.net):

"The British Spitfire airplanes that have been discovered buried in crates in Burma could be flying again in three years, according to experts close to the recovery effort.

The airplanes, thought to be rare Mark XIV Spitfires, were interred in August of 1945 as the Second World War was coming to an end. The airplanes had been shipped to Burma for use in the campaign against the Japanese in that country, and were buried in an effort to keep them out of enemy hands. They have lain under about 30 feet of dirt since 1945.
They were discovered by aviation enthusiast and farmer David Cundall, who now has the rights to 30 percent of what ever is recovered. The UK newspaper The Telegraph reports that Cundall's agents will receive 20 percent, and the Burmese government will get 50 percent ... which are expected to be sold.

The airplanes had been preserved and crated before being buried, so they are expected to be in very good condition. Cundall thinks they may still be wrapped in tar paper from Castle Bromwich, where the airplanes were manufactured. They are later model airplanes powered by Rolls Royce Griffon engines rather than the Merlins found in earlier examples.
The recovery effort is being sponsored by Wargaming.net and its owner Viktor Kiskli. Cundall told the paper that he hopes "they will be brought back to the UK and will be flying at airshows." He said he expects it will take as long as three years to bring the airplanes back to flying condition, and that he's had offers from British companies to fund the restorations and put logos on them. Cundall said that "is acceptable to me."

Excavation is expected to begin early next year.

 

[RiceCake]

Heh, so they still haven't excavated anything? Slow process. The only info they have is speculation.

Get digging already!

 

[JHZR2]

Nothing like Vodafone spitfire #6...

 

[Loobed]

Burma is wet: Very wet.

my guess is they will look like this.

http://www.unburiedcar.com/

http://forwardlook.net/19571958Plymouth/countdown.asp


one of my favorite movies.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037954/

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Nothing like Vodafone spitfire #6...


You just know it's gotta play somehow into the next Bond film.

 

[dkryan]

Update as of January 4th, 2013 -

From the UK Telegraph - January 4, 2013 - Story by Victoria Ward

"The time is right and we are ready: mission to find lost Spitfires of Burma launches."

The British architect of an extraordinary hunt for a lost squadron of Spitfires thought to have been buried in Burma at the end of World War II today declared: "Everything is right and we are ready to go."

Seventeen years after Lincolnshire farmer David Cundall launched his quest to find the buried treasure, he said conditions were finally right to lift the aircraft from the ground.

"It has been 17 years, I've made 17 visits to Burma and found eight eye witnesses," he said.

"Ground penetrating radar have found images of aeroplane shapes and I can't take things any further without digging.

"I'm very excited because it has been an uphill struggle."

"The time is right, the politics is right, the temperature is right," Mr Cundall said.

Mr Cundall and a team of around 18 archaeologists, geophysicists and academics leave tomorrow from Britain for Yangon International Airport, where they hope to find a hoard of at least 36 Mark XIV Spitfires, tarred and neatly packaged in crates below the ground.

The discovery could "easily double" the number of Spitfires still flying. More than 20,000 were built in the 1930s and 1940s but only about 35 remain in the skies.

Accompanying the group will be Stanley Coombe, 91, from Eastbourne, who witnessed the burial of six aircraft at the end of the war.

Mr Cundall, 62, added: "I took him out there in 1998 and we stood two metres from the spot.

"He describes a Spitfire box similar to a double decker bus. It's amazing - I couldn't tell you what I was doing two weeks ago."

Another witness, a Burmese man who was 15 at the time, remembers carrying timber to the site that has recently been found.

The archeological survey of the ground, which begins on Monday, is expected to take ten days.

After that, the team will begin digging and expect to take "a few days" to lift the first crate, buried up to 30ft deep, to the surface.

It is believed that up to 124 Spitfires were buried at three different sites in Burma and Mr Cundall said that if they were all found and returned "back to where they belong" in the UK, it could create 700 jobs.

"We do believe we could sell them all," he said. "They are much sought after aircraft and should be preserved."

The project's lead archaeologist Andy Brockman, a specialist in modern conflict, remains open-minded about what they may discover.

But Mr Cundall is convinced that the Spitfires will be found "completely undamaged"

The aircraft are believed to have been wrapped in tar paper, put in crates and transported from the factory in Castle Bromwich, West Midlands, to Burma in August 1945.

Some were flown in while others were carried over in ships and protected against the harsh weather conditions.

When the war against the Japanese in Burma ended, they are thought to have been buried to ensure they could not be used by Burmese independence fighters.

Surveys at one of three sites identified in the country have shown large areas of electrically conductive material, suggesting the metal parts of the aircraft, around 30ft deep.

The treasure hunt has been described as a "story of British determination against all odds".

A breakthrough was made when sanctions forbidding the movement of military materials in and out of the country were lifted earlier this year following the intervention of David Cameron.

In October, Mr Cundall was given exclusive rights to the three sites.

Under his agreement with the Burmese authorities, he will be entitled to 30 per cent of the discovery, his Burmese partner to 20 per cent and the Burmese government to 50 per cent, which it is expected to put up for sale.

If the dig goes as planned, Mr Cundall expects his Spitfires to be brought home next year, where they will be restored and returned to the skies.

 

[daves66nova]

Unfortunetely,some will probably be crashed at airshows or other places.

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: daves66nova
Unfortunetely,some will probably be crashed at airshows or other places.


Yo, Dave, 'nuff with the negative waves!!

Be happy they've found the Spitfires (hopefully) and that there's a good possiblity the majority will be in good enough shape to fly again.

Yep, accidents do happen, but you're 180 degrees off course as to all the positive things about this find.

 

[hsd]

Hate to be negative but my bet is they will look like the buried 57 Plymouth only worse. Only way a tared wooden box will hold together for 60+ years would be in a desert or ice cap (Greenland P38s). Last I knew Burma didnt have much desert or ice

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: hsd
Hate to be negative but my bet is they will look like the buried 57 Plymouth only worse. Only way a tared wooden box will hold together for 60+ years would be in a desert or ice cap (Greenland P38s). Last I knew Burma didnt have much desert or ice

Okay. Having lectured L.A. Dave about the negative waves, I did read an article today that indicated the search team had found a box that apparently contains at least one of the Spitfires.

The downside is they have to pump out "quite a bit of murky water" to be able to get to the container.

Hey, it's late August 1945, the war is over, and the boys just want to go home. Who can blame them for less than stellar preservation techniques?

 

[raaizin]

looks like the didnt find any:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation...re-hunters.html

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: raaizin
looks like the didnt find any:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation...re-hunters.html


Not yet, but read the last three paragraphs of this article. The search continues..............

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/19/hunt-for-lost-spitfires-comes-up-empty/?intcmp=HPBucket

 

[OVERKILL]

This is the quote on Fox:

Quote:

Published January 17, 2013/Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar – An excavation team hunting for dozens of World War II-era British fighter aircraft believed buried at Myanmar's main international airport says its search will take longer than expected after a survey discovered bundles of electric cables in the way.
A retired Myanmar geology professor who is helping hunt for the rare Spitfires, Soe Thein, said Friday that the team found crates that could contain the planes at Yangon airport.
He said cables and water pipes were found above them, and there is no blueprint for their precise locations.
He said that will make unearthing them more time-consuming.
There was no word on when crates would finally be unearthed.
The Spitfire won fame for helping Britain beat back waves of enemy bombers during the war.

 

[dkryan]

Bad news................................

From the UK Telegraph - February 16, 2013

HUNT FOR WWII SPITFIRES IN BURMA IS CALLED OFF -


The sponsor of a British-led team hunting for dozens of rare World War II Spitfires said to have been buried in Burma has abandoned the search, saying stories of the stashed planes are merely "legend".

Rumours that dozens of the iconic single-seat aircraft were buried in 1945 by Britain, the former colonial power in Burma, had excited military history enthusiasts, but surveys at Yangon airport in the Mingaladon district have failed to bear fruit.

The project backer, online game company Wargaming, said the team "now believes, based on clear documentary evidence, as well as the evidence from the fieldwork, that no Spitfires were delivered in crates and buried at RAF Mingaladon during 1945 and 1946".

Lead archaeologist Andy Brockman said the investigation into the stories of buried Spitfires was undertaken in the spirit of US television forensic police series "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation).

"We followed the clues in the documents, period maps, pictures and air photographs; we talked to surviving witnesses, and visited the 'crime scene' in order to turn our study in the archives into facts on the ground," he said.

"As a result we believe that the legend of the buried Spitfires of Burma is just that: a captivating legend about a beautiful and iconic aircraft."

In a statement released late Friday, Wargaming said the search for Spitfires in Myanmar was rooted in persistent rumours that began among servicemen in "the bars and canteens of South East Asia" as early as 1946.

It added that no surviving witnesses had actually seen planes being buried and that its research in British archives had failed to produce any evidence of the arrival of the aircraft in Burma in the latter months of the war.

But a local businessman involved in the project, Htoo Htoo Zaw, on Saturday vowed to continue the planned digs in the northern city of Myitkyina and Yangon airport, signalling a split within the team.

"We haven't started any digging yet. So how can we say for sure whether there are Spitfires or not?" he told AFP.

It was unclear to what extent the excavations would continue and project leader David Cundall - a farmer and aircraft enthusiast who has spent around 17 years chasing the Spitfires - was not immediately reachable for comment.