Wreckage Of Two Spitfires Found On Salisbury Plain

The Daily Mail ^ | 10-3-12 | Nick Enoch

[trailhkr1]

The remains of two Spitfires that were used for peacetime target practice by the RAF have been discovered on the same firing range nearly 60 years later.

In 1954, the surplus planes were dumped in the middle of the vast Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire for trainee pilots to strafe to hone their firing skills.

The wrecks, which are still worth tens of thousands of pounds in their current state, were left in the remote spot and over the years became covered in long grass and weeds.

[Da Coyote]

To destroy a Spitfire (or a Mustang) should most definitely be considered a major sin. Both were aeronautical engineering works of art.

Horrors.

[spokeshave]

Yeah....and what ever happened to the set of Spitfires all wrapped up and greased that were buried in packing cases somewhere in Asia....?

inquiring minds seek to know.

[Donkey Odious]

I have been watching “Foyle’s War” on Netflix, from Masterpiece Theater. The first few episodes feature some great scenes of flying Spits. It has been wonderful series, BTW. Why is it that Brit tv can produce such great programs, and all we get are more “reality” shows??

[smokingfrog]

Looks like aluminum scrap to me.

80¢ LB.

[mylife]

I would not give them 10 pands.

[wolficatZ]

MK22s are rarer than rare; without looking at the online registry they might be the only ones existing.

I have a documentary that has a few brief clips of Spits being used for ground target practice postwar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_%28Griffon_powered_variants%29

[smokingfrog]

10 pandas? That's a lot!

[ken5050]

Easy answer..

Ever see "The Best Years of Our Lives"...one of the finest WW II movies ever made? In the beginning, there's this scene, right after the war's end.. where a bomber, returning to America..flies over thousands of USAAF planes just crammed into an airport..it's actual footage..from the bombadier's perspective...One of the crew looks down, whistles, and says "Man oh man..we sure could have used all those in 1943."

The cutbacks to the military worldwide right after the war were enormous..everyone wanted to get back to peacetime, their lives..there was nothing else to do with all that surplus armaments..except scrap them....and that's why the few that remain are so valuable now..

[jboot]

You'd be astonished what restorers can do. Back in '88 I toured Paul Garber. They had a Japanese Aichi seaplane that had just been found somewhere in an Indonesian jungle. They had shipped it home in a huge crate with all the soil and vegetation around it still attached. It looked like a burnt log, not an aircraft. There were no recognizable aircraft forms. I recently say it on display at the Udvar-Hazy museum. It looks like a new aircraft (which it mostly is, I'm sure).

In the right hands, these Spits will live again.

[Doogle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU0d3DVcKoY

[tanknetter]

Google the following: “data plate restoration”. These aircraft will fly again, probably with less than 10% of their original material and structure remaining.

[trailhkr1]

Looks like aluminum scrap to me.

There is probably a bunch of brackets and small parts you don't see in the pics that restorers need is what is making this worth some money.

[ken5050]

Thanks..great scene...and it sets up the theme for the picture...is the fly-over scene.. I referenced available..that gives a great perspective..

[tanknetter]

You may be mixing up your planes. The Seiran floatplane on display at UH was captured intact (at Yokosuka) at the start of the US occupation and shipped back to the US for evaluation. It languished in storage for a few decades until the Tamiya model company donated a lot of money to restore it.

I’ve seen it at both Garber and UH. Even have a picture of the model (Tamiya of course) I built of it in front of it. It’s really a beautiful and amazing aircraft and piece of engineering.

[drunknsage]

Here is an excellent one by the BBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40knj0qg_Us

Totally different plane but worth watching.

[llevrok]

Great series! Captures the era quite well.

I love Foyle and the looks on his face. His female redhead driver is as cute as a button!

[smokingfrog]

grandfather’s broom

[Doogle]

...we had an Ammo disposal area there, Salisbury Plain, we used for small arms, grenades, flares and other goodies. They had a weight limit for explosives to be used during demo, which of course I overrode one time....didn't want to bring back comp C...so I put it in with the "shot".... After the dust settled *grins* and we packed up and headed to town, one of my crew asked if we were going to stop in a local pub that was near by.....I answered, of course. When we walked into the place there were only a few people and the barkeep, who knew me from previous "visits", and he was mumblin something like "bloody fawk** yanks,senseless,brainless bunch of wanderin fools, etc etc etc..." I of course acknowledged his greeting with good morning Pat, how are you today? He went on to describe how his bottles and glasses just stopped rattling before we came in and SOMEONE had obviously used too much explosives up on the Plain....while staring at my crew, I said with all sincerity, I'll look into it for ya Patty. He gave me one of those looks that only a drew smile from me.....and said, wat'll have?. I knew there was a underground rock formation that traveled for miles through (under) town and beyond but I was only doing what I was told to do. *smiles*