A bomber dies, a fighter appears

[Dave Adamisin]

Appearently in good engough shape to fly home....... If the picture is to believed........

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/spitfire-pulled-from-irish-peat-bog-16017093.html

[Tom Niebuhr]

Dave,
The picture is probably a stock photo of a Spitfire.

This is a quote from the article:

Historian Dan Snow said: "The plane itself is obviously kind of wreckage and the big pieces survived. We're expecting to find things like the engine and there still may be personal effects in the cockpit

[Douglas Ames]

Appearently in good engough shape to fly home....... If the picture is to believed........

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/spitfire-pulled-from-irish-peat-bog-16017093.html

Your kidding, right?  Did you even read the details of the article? i.e.- WRECKAGE.

The reason it was preserved is because there is very little oxygen in a peat bog, the ph of the bog has something to do with it too.

[John Stiles]

Way cool...........this could get very interesting!

[Dave Adamisin]

I was joking obviously. I would have liked to see a pic of the wreck and the site..

[Randy Ryan]

Well, they are still pulling incredibly well preserved WWII aircraft out of the deep waters of Lake Michigan. SOm eyears back there was a Hellcat salvaged that had been ditched after running out of fuel. The gear was retracted so no damage there. When they lower the gear the tires were still inflated. The de-watered it and removed the battery, nothing to lose they flushed it repeatedly with DI water and filled it with electrolyte. It took a charge. They did go through the instruments and engine of course, but it was noted that they only required cleanup. The paint was totally intact as was all the wiring insulation and other "perishable" parts of the aircraft. With the battery reinstalled, the electrical system was energized with no issues, even to original light bulbs worked. Within I believe 4 weeks of the salvage, the Cat was flown for the first time after spending 50 some years in the cold black water. This was an artical in Wing magazine I think. Incredible (and no, it wasn't the April issue)

[Dave Adamisin]

Well, they are still pulling incredibly well preserved WWII aircraft out of the deep waters of Lake Michigan. SOm eyears back there was a Hellcat salvaged that had been ditched after running out of fuel. The gear was retracted so no damage there. When they lower the gear the tires were still inflated. The de-watered it and removed the battery, nothing to lose they flushed it repeatedly with DI water and filled it with electrolyte. It took a charge. They did go through the instruments and engine of course, but it was noted that they only required cleanup. The paint was totally intact as was all the wiring insulation and other "perishable" parts of the aircraft. With the battery reinstalled, the electrical system was energized with no issues, even to original light bulbs worked. Within I believe 4 weeks of the salvage, the Cat was flown for the first time after spending 50 some years in the cold black water. This was an artical in Wing magazine I think. Incredible (and no, it wasn't the April issue)

Great story. I read about a Dauntless they pulled out of Lake Michigan near Chicago that was the last survivor from the Midway battle. It was stationed on the island.

[Elwyn Aud]

 
Don't know how mangled up it was beforehand, but having to dig it out with an excavator probably didn't help. I guess you really aren't going to do a slow archeological type recovery in most cases.

[Ward Van Duzer]

Do not understand "SO meyears".

Plz explain...

W.

[John Stiles]

Do not understand "SO meyears".

Plz explain...

W.

looks like "Some years"

[M Spencer]

 50 " SOME " years . a bit like 50 " SOME " scones . depends on how manys left. .? ' thereabouts ', or more .

 See they got the engine out at the end on utube. thought it could be 60 ft. in. Most ' air crashes ' leave the plane a bit second hand.
Latter Griffon thgings , or P-51 Ds , at 30.000 ft at full throttle will hit in 30 seconds if unrestrained , going at a fair clip .
Usually they just sawed the tail off , if it was sticking out . Wreck recovery for metal was time / use related , IF they found it .

The English Channel must have a few thousand aircraft in its broader reaches .Bloody tragic .In most Ways.
were six or 8 hundred when they drained the Ziader Zee, half of them bombers.

Can remember when the Olds wouldnt let me have a Kittyhawk of Corsair , driveing past Rukahia scrap yard, aged about 5 .
Though I recon If I kept on , the Old Man wouldve come round to the idea , WHERE would we put it was the major issue.

[Dave Adamisin]

 
Don't know how mangled up it was beforehand, but having to dig it out with an excavator probably didn't help. I guess you really aren't going to do a slow archeological type recovery in most cases.

YIKES!! Not what I expected as a recovery method. Thanks for the link.. Poor beautiful Merlin.....

[Randy Ryan]

I'm so fascinated by some of the recoveries over the years. I read one by a guy that was a kid in Australia durring WWII. Like most kids he was WAY into aircraft. He related a story that took 40 years to complete. He'd seen 2 P-38s fly over his village and a couple days later to American pilots stumbled into town. They described how they run out of fuel and had to ditch the Lightnings in the outback. He listened intently and decided that someday he'd go out and recover them. He finally did, one of them at least. They'd both been landed gear down so they got tore up, but one was better then the other. The pictures of the outside of the planes revealed that the OD paint had been bleached in the sun to a dull yellow, but when they removed panels to disarm the guns they were factory fresh. Don't know if he ever went back for the other.

Another story of a kid was in Holland. He lived near the ocean could watch dogfights from his bedroom window. He watched many aircraft crash into the water as well as some boats sunk. He got or drew a map and started recording the approximate locations of each crash. Years later, when the Dutch government decided to dyke and drain the "polder" he informed the authorities of his mapping of WWII losses in the waters. After pumping and drying they were amazed to find that his approximations were amazingly accurate and they found both Allied and Axis aircraft of all types. One of the most haunting was an ME109 which was found in perfect preservation deep in the mud where oxygen content is negligible. The pilot, still in the cockpit was also preserved, helmet and gloves still on.

I wish I'd kept those Wings and Combat Aircraft mags.

[Neville Legg]

If you notice the photo in the Irish Telegraph article is a Mk IX two seat Spitfire. The Irish Air Corps bought a number of these two seat Spitfires, during and just after the war, and it was a standing joke in the RAF that it took two Irishmen to fly a Spitfire! No offence to any Irishmen on this site
Just up the road from where I'm sitting was RAF Eastchurch, (it got a real pasting from the Luftwaffe in the first days of the Battle of Britain) now a prison, about 35 years ago a Hurricane was pulled out of the marshland that surrounds us on this Island, after a number of hours of work the aviation archaeologists had to call the police as they had found the remains of the pilot. They found quite a large piece of his shirt, with a bullet hole in it, and deduced that he was dead before he hit the ground. Heroes one and all.

Cheers

[Randy Ryan]

"Heroes one and all."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Neville Legg]

That remark goes to all that fought and had a hand in putting an end to the Nazi regime, and WWII, whatever nationality   Just realised that Ryan is an Irish name