Which country has more airworthy Spitfires?

[MarkH]

Seems this may not be as simple a question as it appears!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17710598

[myles]

Even before I opened the thread I was going to say that probably Burma is hosting the most airworthy Spitfires.

I suppose the next thing will be the wrangling over who actually owns them!

Myles

[SkippyBing]

They're not exactly airworthy if they're in crates under the ground. Be interesting to see how many serviceable aircraft they actually manage to recover...

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, that doesn't quite qualify for 'airworthy' - even Spitfires out of annual aren't airworthy. However, there does seem to be good merrit to this news posting - i.e., there really is something there to be dug up. The ground penetration scans which have been made seem more than convincing enough to believe they are of these buried Spitfires. It's been known about for more than a decade now, but there has never been a policatal atmosphere, like there is now, to be able to recover what's there. The stored cache of Spitfires, for which these are believed to be, are former RAF Mk. XIV's and possibly some Mk. VIII's, buried around 1946, with the intentions for possible recovery in the then near future (due to the political climate at the time, involving India).

Based on what I've read from those directly involved in the Spitfire circles, there really is something to this all, which is very exciting - at least the evidence presented thus-far, is very worthy of an expedition to dig up what's there.

From the Telegraph: "A team from the UK is already in place and is expecting to begin the excavation, estimated to cost around £500,000, imminently. It is being funded by the Chichester-based Boultbee Flight Acadamy."

I'm looking forward to sitting back and seeing all that comes of this!

[hairyspin]

I'd also be very interested to see what comes of this, might put a few "authentic instrumentation and fitments" puzzles to bed. The Telegraph claims they're Mk.IIs ... good to know the journos have the facts at their fingertips. :ques:

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, not quite factual in all regards - you'd have to be wondering what anyone would want with Mk.II's in 1946. ; )

- Another item I recently read about this, which might help ease concerns over the state of the aircraft having been buried under ground for so long, is that all of the crates were waxed and tarred - of course if the wood crates were un-protected, there would be nothing left of them after all of these years under ground.

[stansdds]

It will be interesting to see what is found if this pans out.

[stiz]

as i said in the other thread, i'm not getting my hopes up, and i highly highly doubt they'll be in any condition to fly after 67ish years in mud !