Have you guys seen this story? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/spitfire-wwii-fighter-plane-myanmar_n_1978923.html It seems that as many as 140 Spitfires will be excavated in Myanmar, which was called Burma during WWII. I wonder how many of these planes will be able to fly. Any guesses?
I've grown too cynical in my old age to buy into this, unfortunately. It would be great if it turns out, but when you think about the "facts" as we know them, there is no way it's going to happen. If the aircraft did exist and were disposed of in the fashion described, then they have been buried in wooden crates in tropical soil for decades. They were considered surplus (junk) and were not placed in hermetically sealed containers and stored in a museum warehouse, but were merely thrown into a hole and covered. If they find enough recognizable parts to sell as souvenirs they'll be lucky. Hope I'm wrong, but they better not call me for donations to support this wild goose chase.
Really? Well, it never occurred to me that the report was untrue, but I haven't been looking into these kinds of stories for very long. How sad that there are false reports and that the planes will likely be deteriorated. Perhaps, this time they will recover some good parts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...re-hunter-pledges-the-search-will-go-on.html# http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/na...-phantom-spitfires-how-a-legend-was-born.html Anyone wanting to make a contribution to the cause can send it to me, I assure you I have far better uses.
Ugh! I should have known not to trust huff-po! I rarely read that site, but this story came up on my facebook feed and I bought it. Just - wow. I will file this story under Sick, Sad, World.
No Spitfires have been found and so it seems to be a myth that will not go away. The theory is sound, brand new Spitires sent to Burma, not needed, they remained unassembled, and with the end of the war they are among the huge amount of now redundant weapons and munitions scattered across the globe. They are not needed in the UK so why spend the money bringing then home? so to bury them in their boxes, still in preserative is a real option, lots of munitions were dumped at sea, so why not bury some underground? Those true believers are saying that they are there, we have just looked in the wrong place. Personally, I think they do not exist, it's a story, a myth.
It's my first encounter with this myth. But, from now on, I will be more aware of these kinds of claims.
Don't take it personally, Sky. We have all been sucked in at one time or another. Hold on to your innocence as long as you can, cynicism will come soon enough, just keep your wallet in your purse.
Here's the latest on the mystery "Spitfires" of Burma. Looks like our treasure hunter found someone to pony up a half a million to help further fund his hobby. There's a group that has been making a similar career of finding Amelia Earhart for the past few decades. This sounds like the same kind of con job. P.T. Barnum was right apparently, "there's a sucker born every minute". Personally, I'll save my investment dollars fro something for something tangible, like finding Bigfoot or E.T. http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/pound-500k-Spitfire-search/story-19474914-detail/story.html
Wait a minute there, you promised to help fund my project. Can't tell you what it is, you know, if I did then I'd have to . . . well, nowadays no one has the sense of humor for that hoary old line.
I seem to recall there was a shipment of 12 Spitfires sent to USSR through the South. There was a problem when the crates were opened. All were missing the same vital component (Alternator?) and some were useless for months. A shipment of 100 P-40s were sent to China at some point 1940-41. I read how one fellow "borrowed" one and flew it around Mt. Everest. It has been something like 20 years since I read the sources of such information. Info on the Spitfires comes from "The Road to Moscow" as I recall, sorry I do not recall where I got the P40 information.
Send me your contributions and you can be sure they will go to a good cause . . . might as well, you'll get the same result from someone troweling a shovel in the Burmese jungle.
The optimism of these people that believe that good stuff got buried into the ground that is one step above a 'swamp' and expect to pull out something intact fill's me with optimism for the Human race , the fact that anyone in Authority burying something that could be flogged to the local black market scrap dealer for a backhander would make feel more optimistic
