It would appear that 20 Spitfires that were sent to Burma shortly before the end of the war are about to be found. They were buried in the crates they arrived in to prevent them falling into enemy hands and then "forgotten".....
I wonder if that includes shed loads of spare parts too??

Fingers crossed

The only slight problem I see is that the government will auction them off, half will disappear into storage after the price of good intentions is realised and the other half will end up going to America (sadly where the collectors have the cash to rebuild them) and the UK will not really get a look in. Still, if that is the price to double the world's collection of flying Spits, then maybe the it is a price worth paying..........

Hagar wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 4:27am:



I was figuratively speaking Hagar, but never the less it would be a huge addition. Could you imagine getting them all together in one place for a flyby. Maybe someone should start planning the 100th anniversary as these things are quite an undertaking

Matt

PS If the above ever took place we would need to put in an order for a porta-loo and a box of Kleenex. After the flyby has finished, Ozzy would need some personal time to himself......................

I've heard these sort of tales before. I hope it is true and that some of them are fit enough to be restored. It would be lovely to see more of them on the circuit

Why do people in the states and england complain about what isn't at airshows???
Here in Ireland there are no airshows at all!
Unless you count the ocasional helicopter taken out for a short flight.
The closest I had seen to an airshow here was a 3 helicopter line flight over the harbour today!

jetprop wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 9:40am:


True, we should feel fortunate, but I tend to feel all aircraft deserve to fly and deserve a chance to be revered by the general public. As I stated in a different topic, the P-51 has absorbed the warbird scene here in the states at airshows. Many times that is the only warbird. Yes there is a wide variety of warbirds flying in the states, but too many seem to come out only for certain special shows like those put on by air museums (Chino and Thunder Over Michigan come to mind). The vast majority of students in my aeronautical engineering course have no idea what a Spitfire is, a Hurricane, Lancaster, F4F, F6F, F8F, F7F, P-38, P-47 (yes the Jug), B-25, B-24, and on and on...keep in mind these are AERONAUTICAL ENGINEER STUDENTS, they (we) are in college to learn how to design aircraft and the vast majority do not know what some of the most influential and important aircraft are!! You ask them what a P-51 is they know (they are common at airshows) and most know what a B-17 is (thank you hollywood)...but the P-51 is not the fighter that everyone makes it out to be. There are many other piston pounders in WW2 that could out-fly a Mustang (Spits being one)...so my beef has more to do with frustration with the INCREASING lack of enthusiasm for historical aircraft. Every time I over hear a lay-person at an air museum or airshow talk about the warbird in front of them it is usually something along the lines of "oh, so this plane did this....whatever"  . This is very very frustrating for me!!

Don't get too excited there are and are romoured to be various aircraft across the far east. Finding them is one thing, getting them out another...

About 10 years ago the Shuttleworth lot tried to get a Balliol or two out of Sri Lanka IIRC; a two seat Merlin trainer being a rare commodity. Peter Vacher also had "fun" getting his the derelict Hurricane hulk out of India (he details the fun in his book). Lots of "diplomacy" is needed - particularly in far reaching former corners of the empire where we taught them the art of bureaucracy, and having everything in triplicate, and signed by everyone including the cleaner's dog. And giving the correct bloke a tenner... or three. Or a cheque. A blank one.

Obviously "someone" has the ear of the PM to bring up what is monetarily a very small topic.

C wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 12:56pm:



The Telegraph mentions that the bloke who's trying to mount the £500,000 recovery is being funded by the Boultbee Flight Academy, who do the Spitfire course at Oxford - and the millionaire owner Steve Brooks. £500,000 is a fair investment when you're possibly selling them for £2-5m each at the end of it.

andy190 wrote on Apr 14^th, 2012 at 6:07pm:

Even I knew what a spitfire was when I was 5 and wasn't into planes.