Aircraft and aero engines disposed of by burial (merged)

Aliens.

Ahh… That’s what happened to the Burma Spitfires, the Aliens took them. Figures…:)

My favorite. UFO dumped into well at Aurora Texas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Texas,_UFO_incident

“Reportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into a nearby well located under the damaged windmill, while some ended up with the alien in the grave. Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oates, who purchased Judge Proctor’s property around 1945. Oates cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, Oates sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the slab. (According to writing on the slab, this was done in 1957.)”

None of us Māori as spirit guides either. We’d be a bit dodgy anyway as easily distracted by wine, women, food and song 😀 However this Māori is interested in Bristol Pegasus 580 hp engines especially parts thereof. We have a Baffin we are restoring so if you managed to dig up parts of the pegasus engine that’d be handy.

Why when talking to mediums, psychics and the like are ‘spirit guides’ invariably native American Indians? I mean just how many of these guys are waiting around in the spirit world for people to guide? How come they are never Eskimos or Australian Aborigines, or deceased cost accountants from Swindon?
Moggy 🙂

Not actually invariable, some spirit guides are Siberian. However these rare individuals do run the risk of being thought fraudulent.

RNAS Abbotsinch (HMS Sanderling) now Glasgow Airport, I have read various reports (one on here IIRC) of engines (Merlins of course !) being buried on site, but not digable as now under a taxiway.

DH Hornet’s at RAF Penang, now Penang International Airport, Malaysia
Hornets were broken up and bulldozed into a trench to dispose of them.

Royal Navy firefighting training station in UK
Sea Hornets & Firebrands used in firefighting training, the singed but complete remains bulldozed into pits on the base when finished with.

Wyverns & Firefly’s buried in a pit at the edge of RNAS Gosport as discussed on here in another thread.

Bell P-39 fuselage buried in a nursery, in Port Moresby, PNG by an expatriate leaving the country and not able to take it with him. Anyone add to this story?
I’ve dug RAAF Vengence components out of the banks of the Anabranch, North of Charters Towers, Australia. Dumped from RAAF Breddan when the base closed. Everything recovered, HEAVILY corroded, with the exception of the brass Vultee placards on the undercarriage legs.
CAC Boomerang parts, NOS, stacked in a very large pile and set on fire at RAAF Macrossan, Australia. All aluminium components destroyed, but most steel parts were in good condition as late as the mid eighties(including Canopy and Windscreen frames).
I recently purchased a P-38 20mm Ammo box which I believe came from the recent digs on ex-USAAF bases in England that was widely reported. Seems to be in very good condition, but it is Stainless Steel. Bought from the US at what I would consider a premium price.

Did you not see my reply re Iraq?

Yes but those were buried in sand temporarily – I was talking about complete unassembled aircraft in crates as per the now disproved Burma scenario. A very different thing you will agree.

Did you not see my reply re Iraq?

The lack of any answer could be your answer, Malcolm!

Thanks Andy – I rather thought that might be the answer 🙂

Halifax’s including eyewitness statements from the thread on pprune

Quote:
Have a dig around Edzell, in Scotland. That was the Halifax and Stirling disposal unit after the war. My father used to ferry brand new Hailfaxs from the factory to there to be scrapped.
And my old man, an RAF fireman, then took a chainsaw to them and then buldozered them into a hole at the end of the runway – crated engines as well (he says!)

From

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/504768-burmese-spitfires-theyve-found-crate-4.html

Freeman Field Airshow

Take a look at this video:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1723870789084&set=vb.100776559984890&type=2&theater

EN474 and the RAFM Typhoon appear between 1:30 and 2:00 in.

Interesting flying shots of a captured Ju88 too.

Some true accounts of buried treasure….. As already mentioned, lots of stuff turned up a Gutersloh during a new hangar construction and can now be seen in the small airfield museum. Detmold too also unearthed aircraft parts when the Army Air Corps cleared part of the airfield for a new hangar. A very nice MG121 cannon was secured by one of the helicopter Squadrons as a souvenir.

Another interesting find was a stash of motorcycles uncovered from a stowage room at RAF Gatow in Berlin during the 1970’s. We brought a 1927 Civilian Tornax. It was over painted purple which I later found out to be the colour used on German wartime commandeered vehicles.

Freeman Field

The Freeman Field Recovery Team have an active Facebook page which they update almost daily – if you haven’t seen it it’s well worth a look:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freeman-Field-Recovery-Team/100776559984890

As well as the Typhoon radiator they turned up a pair of Spitfire undercarriage doors some years ago – have a look at the postwar photos of EN474 for a clue as to where they came from 😉

Regarding the Farnborough / M3 scrap. A recall when I was working at “Aviation News” back in 1972 we had a news item about an engine from a Heinkel He177 having been dug up.

Honington might be worth a look if this website is anything to go by:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafhonington/aboutus/history.cfm (3rd paragraph)

Well there were the Iraqi Mig 25’s and SU25’s amongst others dug up, not in their packing cases, but simply buried to protect them until needed…. So not out of the realms of possibility it couldn’t be done with new ones.

http://www.defense.gov/photos/newsphoto.aspx?newsphotoid=4559

The lack of any answer could be your answer, Malcolm!

I asked this question on the OTHER thread re oriental Spitfires and never got an answer. So I’ll ask again.

Has anyone ever dug up a crated aircraft anywhere? And I don’t mean parts, I mean the whole thing as shipped from the factory.

Thinking back, I think that we salved what we could of the stainless components and passed these on to a project. At this distance in time I honestly forget which one but I do recall Tim Moore and Guy Black looking at them and think one or the other ended up with them.

Hector wings were different from those of a Demon. Unlike the Demon, the Hector had a straight leading edge.

Steve P

Hi Steve

I know the wings were straight on the Hector & swept back on the Demon, however many of the staintess steel fittings etc would have been the same.

Cheer’s.
Bob.

It’s the we may use it again mentality, I had a break in at a hangar I worked in several years ago and someone take an Axe to a nearly new aircraft writing it off, it gutted me and every day I had to look at this thing, so I eventually took speed tape to it and patched up all the holes so it didn’t look that bad and to protect it from getting any worse in the hope someone would buy it and put it back in the air, they did.

Just look at all the ex RAF stuff in eBay, marked up as scrap but labelled and packed. In Cyprus during the troubles they had the bays mark all the serviceable gear up, pack it properly, palletise it for transport, then shoved it out of the back of a Herc over the oggin.
I suppose a lot is down to mans desire not to see stuff of value simply wasted, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done as a Sootie taking a sledge hammer to a bunch of Avons so they could never be used again post RAF.

And why when people are ‘disposing’ of stuff by burial do they invariably wrap them in protective material. What’s the point?

Maybe it is because those that view the burial are unfamiliar with the storage precautions for spare-parts taken by the MOD which border on paranoia and which are applied in most cases by the manufacturer.

“I saw new Merlin crankshafts being covered in protective grease and buried in a pit!”

“I saw new Merlin crankshafts covered in protective grease being buried in a pit!”

(Unfortunately these Merlin crankshafts were spares for a Hawker Henley and as such are worthless!)