Stirling Bombers

If you want a resonable look at the Striling bits held by the RAF Museum, you want to check out the souvenir video that they sell, where you get to see ‘behind the scenes’ a little.

The Stirling in the Solent is steadily being ground away by the sand and tides. Irrecoverable anyway and probably not much more than the bottom skins left now.

Speaking of watery graves, I think I read once there are some (3?) Sunderlands at the bottom of Lake Windermere that sank in a storm. Anybody else heard this or remember any more?

I must admit that I was very surprised and very skeptical when I was told about this. But I really pushed the chap who told me and he was adamant that it was true. This chap is not the sort of person to make things up and is ‘loosely connected with Stirlings’ and professionally involved in the preservation world.

Having said that it was a while ago and I have not heard anything since so might be a load of old rubbish.

Lets hope not and don’t forget Russia is an awfully big country……

Originally posted by Ant Harrington
Here we go with those Russian rumours again…!Personally I’d advise anyone who hears anything about an ‘intact aircraft in the former USSR’ to take the news with a pinch of salt.

But an awful lot of stuff has come out of Russia, some in fantastic condition such as the Fw190, La11, P40C etc. There is evidently still some stuff to be had from there if you can get it away from the Russian mafia such as the P63’s recently imported. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of some interesting stuff appearing in the future, however the Russians have now come to realise that these things are worth money therefore leading to over inflated and unrealistic prices being asked.

Wreckovery in the former USSR…

In the post-WW2 years up to Stalin’s death, a terrible lot of aircraft were scrapped in the Soviet Union.

First of all, with the advent of the MiG-15 the Soviet brassheads came to the conclusion that props were a thing of the past, and the glorious VVS would not use such obsolete machines – especially not if they were of imperialistic make (like the P-63s and B-25s which were used until the early 1950s). Secondly, those aircraft provided cheap and easy-to-get aluminium.*

Also, there was a distinct lack of interest in the historical value of aircraft in those days. Of many unique Soviet aircraft, nothing remains: no MiG-13 mixed-propulsion fighters, no Tu-14 torpedo bombers, and the only surviving La-15s (something like the MiG-15 with shoulder mounted wings) are highly radioactive after some rigorous testing in Kazakstan in the late 1950s.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t any treasures to find though (i ‘discovered’ a surviving Polikarpov I-17 in a backward way of the beaten track museum myself, and also a Yak-28P of which none are repeatedly stated to survive) but i do agree that any rumour should be taken with a massive pile of salt until some substantial evidence is found.

* Translated for Americans: it was cheap and easy-to-get aluminum

Here we go with those Russian rumours again…!Personally I’d advise anyone who hears anything about an ‘intact aircraft in the former USSR’ to take the news with a pinch of salt.There was a rumour about a Stirling lying on it’s back at the bottom of a Russian lake,but surprise surprise,nothing has materialised.If it sounds too good to be true,then it almost certainly is!
Probably the biggest chunk of Stirling around at the moment is the rear fuselage from a Mk.IV glider tug which crashed in France on a supply mission in 1944.The RAFM also hold the wreckage of another crashed Stirling,and the remains of another were discovered in the Solent a few years ago,where they remain in god-knows what sort of condition.

Excited

Joe, this is very exciting news.

Naturally, you are guarding your source and the amount of detail available – we respect that. But can you give us any more details?

I am afraid there are no Stirlings remaining either flyable or static in museums.

As it was one of the earlier bombers during the war, they were already absolete come 1945 and guess most have them had already been recycled into Lancasters by then.

Having said that I did here from a very reliable source recently that a complete one had been discovered (albeit dismantled) in Russia…………………………….;)