Buried Treasure: World War II Spitfires to Be Unearthed in Burma

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Did a search, nothing popped up.. so forgive please if this is a repeat.

Seems a British farmer has been in search of some old buried Spitfire fighter planes...for FIFTEEN YEARS, wow.

It’s like something out of an Indiana Jones film, if you take away the religious overtones and ophidiophobic adventurer. After 15 years, a British farmer’s quest to find a squadron of legendary fighter planes lost in Burma during World War II has finally paid off.

LINK HERE

Lincolnshire farmer David Cundall, 62, has spent about $207,000, traveled to Burma a dozen times and negotiated with the cagey Burmese government, all in the hopes of finding a stash of iconic British Spitfires buried somewhere in the Southeast Asian country.

After a decade and a half of searching, he finally managed to locate the missing airplanes, which had never been flown and were indeed buried while still in their transport crates. “We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition,”

Don't know if any of you are history buffs or not... but this news story is very much like finding buried treasure..

BRAND NEW , never been flown...did not see an exact number of these listed in news at link...

How many planes are in a squadron?? If he found the whole squadron... wow..

Very few of these planes survived the war.. It is a legendary plane....

It began its life as a supermarine racing plane in the 1930's... and once hostilities became a certainty.. it was converted over to military uses.

if in decent shape, each plane is worth a sum much more than he has invested in his quest.

Good on him for rescuing some classic planes..

I find it fascinating this historic find.. even as the world seems destined to repeat the world war mistake again..

Looks like nobody learned much from the timeframe of these buried Spitfires.. sigh..

Hope you find this story interesting, and in the proper forum..

Pravdaseeker

Wow this is great. There are far to few surviving spitfires.
They are one of the truely great planes to come out of WWII.
Good find!S&F

Aww be great to get them back to Blighty.
My Great Uncle was shot down in Burma.

*Inserts shameless plug for Supermarine* supermarine.net...

Least the guy who get's them can still get his mitts on parts if he needs them.

I love this. I have always been fascinated by these kinds of historical finds. Very interesting. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I wish things like this would at least get a mention in the news. This is a HUGE find whether the every day person thinks so or not. There are not many times in our lives when we can get a glimpse into the past such as this and this is truly a glimpse back in time. Great find.

I just saw this news on Slashdot, and was going to post it, but, ATS Search brought me here.

This is a really interesting find! I wonder what will happen to planes after they are uncovered?

Will man that found them get to keep them?

What cost will the shady Burma government try to toll?

Will they stay in Burma? Will collectors and enthusiasts like the guy that found them spending so much money get a chance of buying one or several of them?

Will they get shipped back to UK?

So many of these planes in pristine never-flown condition is really quite amazing.

I don't expect they could just be hopped into and flown right away without replacing many things that may have fallen to rot over these near 70 years, plus cold welding occurring between close contact metal parts due to oxidization, and other things.
Still, getting some of these in museums, and some even into the air would be absolutely wonderful.

edit The article I read said there's as many as 20 planes buried:
Sq uadron of lost Spitfires ...

I hope they are careful in digging these up as there might be live ammunition, bombs, and other super deadly dangerous stuff buried with these treasures, or even on top of them to discourage their discovery by unwanted types.