P47D Recovery in Austria

Absolutely amazing Peter. Sometimes I forget how great WIX is.

I always wondered what the Austrian’s policy was on letting aircraft be recovered…..

Hey Guys.
Check out the recovery of a P47 over on Wix…
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3962

Another update at the WIX…

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3977&sid=2788487a29aff61ddd8d7e069423ee36

I’m all for keeping as many warbirds airworthy as possible, but this is prime museum material IMO. Anyone who would wish to see it effectively used as a pattern for the next “new-production” Thunderbolt must have zero sense of historical relevance and worth. If it was yet another Stateside training aircraft with no combat history, recovered under the same circumstances, I’d be all for seeing it (properly) restored and flown. As it is, this appears to be an extremely unique one-of-a-kind combat vet, and its innate value surpasses that of the average ‘fly-by queen’ by a long shot IMO.

I’d love to see a dozen P-47’s flying formation just like the next guy, but the value of witnessing nine Thunderbolts flying rather than eight does not equal the inherent historical value of this particular plane. Where else in the world can you go to see any intact P-47 preserved in this state of originality? Nowhere.

Prior to this airframe emerging from the depths, were there any other ETO combat vet Jugs extant..?

If not and this is the sole example, there’s half of me that says restore it and fly it, the other half says sympathetic restoration/conservation to retain as much of that wonderfully historic original paint etc and thus it deserves to be displayed at a major USAF dedicated museum instead.

Thanks !

highly appreciated !

Martin

Hi Martin,

When I get to work I’ll give then a call to comnfirm it and post what I find tonight.

Cheers
RER

Does anyone know about a certain

Dr. Gordon Mueller, D-Day Museum New Orleans – who is reportedly the “customer” of the company doing parts of the restoration

-> http://www.sandyair.com ❓

TIA !
Martin

Direct link to pics http://www.juhe.at/presse/article/Traunkirchen/1118689835.html

You rock (as usual) Laurent

merci infiniment
Martin

Hi,

Inceredible recovery, I hope we’ll see more pictures in the next days.

Just found this picture showing how it looked before taking a 60 years long bath

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=149674&messageid=1118804150

from a post by David Walker on the Hyperscale forum
http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/forum.htm

Laurent

That is Gold!

Oh my word….what a find. Stars and Bars, guns, artwork, and it’s in one piece.

Incredibly exciting!

Bloody hell, that’s quite remarkable! Sod the gold! 😀

(Well, maybe not…! ;))

😀 Keep the gold and use it to finance the rebuild to flight ,oh if only eh 🙂

Bloody hell, that’s quite remarkable! Sod the gold! 😀

(Well, maybe not…! ;))

Heinkel He177 😎 :rolleyes:

Cheers

Cees

What do you know, you go looking for gold and pull up a pile of discarded junk. Just throw it back and start again 🙂

According to one Austrian News Report I saw (In german) there are at ‘least one other aircraft’ in the same lake – Though it could be a mis-reporting of the orioginal inclident as Mohr was in a flight of 2 aircraft when he ditched.

Same lake if my non-existent German and my memory are correct.

There are quite a few BIG lakes in that part of Austria. I wonder what else is in them.

Apparently Nazi gold if the rumours are correct 😉

There are quite a few BIG lakes in that part of Austria. I wonder what else is in them.