36 Mint WW2 spitfires to be unearthed...

Thats so sad... I love buried treasure stories.

Like a freeze frame time capsule from a bygone era.

Originally posted by nake13
An early Mk Vb would be my guess,as they were,initially fitted with the same spinner covering the de havilland constant speed governing gear used by the Mk ia's and mk 2's,although some mk 1a spits were fitted out with 2 x 20mm cannon and 4 x 303's during the battle of Britain,but not liked by the pilots as the Hispano cannon were prone to jamming.

All excellent points however I still think its supposed to be a Mk.Ib.

The drawing seems to show the early VHF antenna and the original windscreen before they were switched to the bulletproof style.

Those details would preclude a Mk.V?

Spitfire production was anything but linear and homogeneous, interesting that you see a similar parallel in the Bf-109. It makes sense in that you are trying to adapt a moving production line on the fly, its easy to see how the lines can get blurred quickly.

It is nice to see so many people that have an honest appreciation of these aircraft amongst the ATS membership.

Originally posted by dowot
Sorry folks, looks like there are no planes to be found, according to latest BBC news this morning.

Although the guy who started all this is still confident, 3 sites have been looked at with no results.

The Russian sponsors were to have given an announcement today but pulled out, saying nothing to report.

www.bbc.co.uk...

I presume that there are some planes missing from the production lists, so they are somewhere, cue further speculation!

Well that sucks.

The team of archaeologists working on the dig are specialists in the field of war excavations.

They have been digging at the site over the last week.

They have also examined the file of evidence supplied by David Cundall which includes eyewitness testimony from eight individuals.

However they believe that none of the testimony proves that Spitfires were buried at the airport or any of the other sites in Burma.

The team has also examined the existing war archives as well as photographs and drawings by official war artists from the period.

I understand they believe traces of metal alloy found in the ground could come from other sources. During the dig they uncovered pieces of the old metal runway.

One possibility they have studied is that witnesses may have seen crates of other aircraft - used for observation work - being shipped through the airport during the period.

However, Mr Cundall insists that his eyewitness testimony is correct. He says the archaeologists have dug in the wrong place.

The dig was delayed on Thursday by official concerns that work could interfere with electric cables and water pipes.

Originally posted by dave_welch

Originally posted by Drunkenparrot
I believe they are thought to be a combination of Griffon powered Mk.XIV's and Mk.XVIII's possibly with a few Merlin 64 Mk.VIII's.

Unfortunately the first crate is full of water, doesn't bode well with all of our hopes of digging a full fighter wing of brand new Spits out of the mud.

Time Capsule Unveiling Reveals Rusty 1957 Plymouth

A concrete vault encasing a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried a half-century ago may have been built to withstand a nuclear attack but it couldn't beat back the natural onslaught of moisture.

At a Friday ceremony complete with a couple of drum rolls, crews removed a multilayered protective wrapping caked with red mud, revealing a vintage vehicle that was covered in rust and wouldn't crank.

There were a few bright spots, literally: shiny chrome was still visible around the doors and front fender, and workers were able to put air in the tires.

But the unveiling in front of thousands of people at the Tulsa Convention Center confirmed fears that the past 50 years had not been the kindest to Miss Belvedere.

You beat me to it! I wanted to post this, as I was pretty excited about seeing them unearth the old Plymouth. Plus, I'm from Oklahoma, so it was kind of a big deal for us.... Then we saw it, and there was a quick killing of all the excitement. However, if the planes are packed in grease, there's less chance of this happening to them.

funny thing is boyd codington was tasked to restore this beast but he died & they tossed him in the hole this thing came out of

reply to post by Drunkenparrot

I'd also say it's a Mk Vb (or just possibly a Ib).

As an independent observer Spitfire Historian Peter Arnold puts it into perspective. At Mingaladon they apparently never got a chance to dig at the hot spots. In essence there was a documentary story to be filmed and they were permitted to dig first at the non hot spot at Mingaladon. The aim was to move onto the main area .....

See following.

Post by Peter Arnold

Burma spitfires: search still on, says mission leader David Cundall

Interview of David Cundall at following link.

Video Interview - Article