Seabed to be mapped for aircraft remains

The Hydrographic office web site actually lists some interesting aircraft wrecks but not a great deal of interest.

Mike E

Most, if not all, of the Hydrographic Office’s information on aircraft wrecks will have come from the diving community.

Agree ref aluminium/magnesium alloy sections. Steel sometimes fares better, but all very much depends on the seabed bottom and the local marine environment. Very much luck of the draw, but the clock is ticking very firmly on that luck.

The Hydrographic office web site actually lists some interesting aircraft wrecks but not a great deal of interest.

Mike E

Agreed the Magnesium alloy rear fuselage will have desolved long ago but from experience the rest of the airframe should be there and more importantly the centre section cockpit and engine bays with engines and undercarriage in place.

By the way in reference to the Malta surveys there are now some 30 plus aircraft wrecks identified ranging from 70 to 120 metres,some of them very,very interesting but I am not authorised to say more.

Mike E

www.whirlwindfighterproject.org

Newforest

….. the English Channel was surveyed a couple of years ago by the Odyssey Explorer. They were basically looking for shipwrecks, but I am sure they would have discovered many aircraft remains.

If they started ‘a couple of years ago’, they would still be at it now in the Channel!. The Channel covers a vast area and surveying at sea is a very slow, time consuming business and therefore enormously expensive. Much less so if you have a previously located target to aim for, but there are relatively few of those.

Most ‘known’ aircraft wrecks at sea around the UK have been found by divers diving on charted wrecks. These charted wrecks were invariably found during routine state organised surveys for maritime safety purposes, and as such the prime objective was to locate potential dangers rather than find out what the dangers are.

That’s where over the years amateur divers have filled a large gap, but 68+ years immersed in salt waters doesn’t make their task any easier, and time is fast running out. Wessex Archaeology are rather late on the scene. Perhaps better late than never, but add to that the belt tightening of the present recession and we are almost back to square one.

Now before you all decide from your armchairs what will not survive in the Channel take a look at Bob Peacock’s video of the Ju88 in 20m off Deal

http://youtu.be/Prmz6YAse6c

Cockpit at 2.57 in is the eyeopener as is the tail feathers.

Oh and it’s not a one off – the guy is the same one that found the Do,17 close by.

http://youtu.be/eJm9V64g2ig

Now open eyes and brains for credibility check.

Ross

I doubt the use of magnesium skins would have helped them to survive long in the Channel!

We contacted Odysey Exploration late last year because of Whirlwinds in the channel and in the North Sea and got a very dissapointing response. Basically there was nothing of aviation interest found in their surveys,this I suspect is short for they did not find any wrecked aircraft full of gold.

Mike E

www.whirlwindfighterproject.org

Wonder if they found anything resembling a Spitfire Vb about 10 miles off Littlehampton – though I suspect it broke up on impact and ended up scattered.

I wonder if they could find a Tiger Moth that went in the Irish sea 30 years ago!!!

Did anything more happen with the seabed survey work off Malta a few years back? They found a few aircraft including a Sea Fury which looked to be in good condition?

I suspect the strong currents in most of the Channel will have swept away lighter objects, unless they were lucky enough to be trapped in a gentler environment or embedded in sand/mud. By light objects I include those made of aluminium. I very much doubt whether a survey will find many aircraft recognisable as such. Engines maybe another matter.

Talk about reprinting old news.

Look at the strapline date

By Jasper Copping
12:01AM GMT 11 Nov 2007

It relates to the Wessex Arch desk study.

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/aircraft_eh_2008/

Ross

The article is a little short on details, but the English Channel was surveyed a couple of years ago by the Odyssey Explorer. They were basically looking for shipwrecks, but I am sure they would have discovered many aircraft remains.