The air preservation equivalent of finding that NYC Hudson in a barn, times 20:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... to-UK.html

"Twenty iconic Spitfire aircraft buried in Burma during the Second World War are to be repatriated to Britain after an intervention by David Cameron.

The Prime Minister secured a historic deal that will see the fighter aircraft dug up and shipped back to the UK almost 67 years after they were hidden more than 40-feet below ground amid fears of a Japanese occupation."

“They were just buried there in transport crates,” Mr Cundall said. “They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred. They will be in near perfect condition.”

Too late for April Fool's day.

The old airplane preservation world is looking at this with a highly skeptical eye right now, hardly anyone is taking this seriously.
There are several issues with the reality the story shows that doesn't make sense to those familiar with how airplanes were assembled and stored at that time. I don't have the time right now to go into them all.
Read this and you'll get a better idea as to why few people into airplanes is taking this very seriously: http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45232&sid=c8d674b8788369d11fc3945c6e66f418

Wow. Change spitfire to steam engine and buried in a box to found in a barn and it's just like this forum.

Burma? Isn't that Myanmar now, and has ben for several years?

dave

Looks real to The Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... e-fly.html

But aviation enthusiasts, aided by experts from the University of Leeds and a Second World War veteran who witnessed their burial, believe they have now discovered their locations using ground penetrating radar technology.

In a former life, I was party to an incident on a smaller scale, but just as improbable.

About 30 years ago I was part of a team restoring an M3A1 Halftrack, that had lived a long, hard life, ending up a log hauling cab/chassis in the far western Catskill Mountains. We restored the old girl, named "Janet" according to the lowest layer of paint we removed from the top of her radiator armor plate. "Janet" was a "Bride of Frankenstein" project, with parts coming from all over the country and Europe.

One of our party was a trucker had a knack for finding stashes of NOS parts in some of the most unlikely places. One day he found a shipping case in dusty corner of a warehouse, that for reasons unknown had never been shipped to its destination in 1960 France -- a complete, with all appliances White 386 inline-6 halftrack engine! After cleaning up the packing, drop it in, add water, oil, grease and fuel, and go! (and that's just what we did!)

I don't know what practices the RAF specified for oversears shipment, but if these things were in kit form in shipping cases, there's precious little that will ruin anything coated in Cosmoline and waxpaper! Ya never know what can come out of the woodwork, and I really hope that if it went to such high Governmental levels in a unique political environment like that in Myanmar today, that something will come of it.

The thought of a full squadron of Spitfires buzzing by would be pretty neat...

The English have officially chosen not to recognise Myanmar and continue to use Burma. Of course that may be changing...........

Wes

That should about sum it up!

Thanks. The poems on the roadsigns over here just don't read well when ending with "Get Myanmar Shave."

I pity all
the mighty Caesars
they pulled each whisker
out with tweezers.
Get Myanmar Shave.

See? Burma just fits better.

dave

I can't imagine a world where the Everly Brothers record a song named "Myamar Shave."

That was so corny that I audibly groaned! Thanks for the laugh!

Hopefully they turn out to be in better shape than the buried 1957 Plymouth "Miss Belvedere". If ground water got in there all bets are off.

that rides with the stashed British steam engines in a tunnel "just in case"

humnnnmn I see a following concept riding here with the Brits...