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Pensioners restore Lancaster bomber

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Garfield

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Some parts of a much less carefully buried Spitfire were found to be workable a couple of years ago - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15660438 .

 

Showing how hardy some of these old aircraft are, an American expedition discovered a B-29 in Greenland back in the '90s that had sat in Arctic conditions ever since it made an emergency landing during WWII. They restored it to flying condition on-site, but unfortunately it suffered a disastrous malfunction whilst taxiing for take-off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird#Recovery.2Frestoration_summary

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Showing how hardy some of these old aircraft are, an American expedition discovered a B-29 in Greenland back in the '90s that had sat in Arctic conditions ever since it made an emergency landing during WWII. They restored it to flying condition on-site, but unfortunately it suffered a disastrous malfunction whilst taxiing for take-off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird#Recovery.2Frestoration_summary

 

 

There's a Hastings stuck in Greenland, somewhere, too..

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  • 2 weeks later...
Nice footage, Broithe... I remember seeing a documentary about the operation on the Discovery Channel some years ago.

 

Big piece in Saturday Daily Mail on this subject. "Spitfire search descends into Farce". Seems as tho' they are not there (in Burma) after all. The diggers want to move to another site. Mind you, they are looking for more support, so if you want to send me any cash donations, I will try to get it to them.( Only Kidding!). Regards Ken

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

Too good to be true after all. :(

 

Or is it...?

 

Last month a crate was discovered in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, but muddy water stopped an immediate identification of its contents.

 

The central city of Meiktila was another site identified as a possible location for the buried Spitfires.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Few planes get better-looking as they get modified, but the MR3 was the nicest, I think - the tricycle undercarriage really suited it.

 

There was a better video using a lot of that footage, but it's gone 'private' now, for some reason.

 

A lot of aircraft were quite recognisable from their sound, but the Shackleton was unmistakeable. The Argosy was another, no mistaking that, either.

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It had a really distinct whistle and a whine that other Dart-engined things didn't have. The prop blades were very square-ended - maybe that had something to do with it, but there was just no mistaking it..

 

It also had one of the best 'faces' - the lower viewing window was slightly offset and gave it a sort of quizzical look..

 

argosy-pic1.jpg

 

It often appeared as a character in RAF cartoons..

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Few things looked as nice as a MiG 19 - zero-length launch must have been quite exciting - and pulling the 'chute whilst you're still in the air is a mark of someone who's confident in what he's doing - a common 'fashion' with Russian pilots..

 

 

Only ever seen one close-up, in Prague Air Museum. Serious guns, requiring big blast-plates....

 

Leteck%C3%A9_muzeum_Kbely_(181).jpg

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Spot the Gnat...

 

 

...A few of them were used throughout the first Hot Shots film :)

 

 

For me, it's hard to beat the looks of a Mirage F1: http://www.military-today.com/aircraft/dassault_mirage_f1.jpg

Or a Saab Draken: http://www.aircraftinformation.info/Images/Draken_05.jpg - what the Swedes were developing whilst the Americans were still churning out Thunderjets and Sabres.

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broithe, any whirlwinds flying?

 

No, not even any left at all, although the remains of a crashed one were found a while ago. There never were many and they're all gone ages ago. There are plans to build a full size flying replica, apparently - and you could get plans in the '70s to build a 2/3 size one at home.

 

It suffered from the Peregrine engine and the Beaufighter eclipsed it in the end - nice-looking, though, I'll agree.

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