Underwater Aircraft

There goes the forum naughty word spotter again!

Originally posted by Graeme C
i heard that there was a number of Sunderlands at the bottom of windermere? would be cool if anyone has found anything on these?

I´m afraid not. I got this from the guy who salvaged Donald Campbells Bluebird K7 from Coniston Water….

“yes I’ve heard of the Sunderland flying boats, unfortunately they’re not there. The story went that they were not only built there in secret but they were flown in to be repaired after they’d either worn out or were damaged. All of this is true, what is not true is the story that several of them were found to be beyond repair at the end of the war and were simply sunk on site. The story persisted for many years until a gentleman suffering from some terminal disease decided to team up with his son and settle the issue. They did a great deal of work in the area with side-scan sonar and turned up precisely nothing. Shame but there you have it. There’s a story of a Lancaster in Was****er that I haven’t been able to authenticate or debunk yet.

Bill Smith.
(Bluebird Project Leader)”

The Lanc sounds interesting though. But only if its there!

cheers
James D

fw-200

Some pictures of the fw-200 recovered.

all pictures are from the: Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung site

This fw-200 is being restored by: Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung (DLBS, Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Foundation).

for more info take a look on this site:http://www.lufthansa-ju52.de/english/0indexe.htm

Originally posted by John Cooper
I don’t know about any Sunderlands at the bottom of Windermere but some were produced at Ambleside (NE Side W’mere) there are still a few things like slipways, rails, etc as evidence.

35 Sunderland MkIIIs were built on Windermere in what is now known as White Cross Bay, allegedly because of the appearance of the Sunderlands when viewed from across the lake.

Originally posted by DazDaMan
I remember reading somewhere (probably Flypast or Aeroplane) about a FW200 Condor being brought up, but it fell apart 🙁

Apart from having spent 50-odd years underwater, the FW200 was prone to being a bit fragile and couldn’t take the strain.

Any other info?

For all the sterling service it gave to the Luftwaffe the FW200 suffered from being what it was, a converted airliner design

I remember reading somewhere (probably Flypast or Aeroplane) about a FW200 Condor being brought up, but it fell apart 🙁

Apart from having spent 50-odd years underwater, the FW200 was prone to being a bit fragile and couldn’t take the strain.

Any other info?

I don’t know about any Sunderlands at the bottom of Windermere but some were produced at Ambleside (NE Side W’mere) there are still a few things like slipways, rails, etc as evidence.

Originally posted by EN830
Are there meant to be some flying boats in lake Windermere?

I think there are supposed to be 3 Sunderlands that sank in a storm, if my memory serves me right, which is increasingly unlikely at my advanced age.

Freshwater wrecks.

Last year I inspected the wreck of Spitfire RK912 recovered from a fresh water lake in mainland Europe. The steel items were rotted well beyond recovery. In fact far worse than similar items I have seen recovered from salt water. Very disappointing as the from the photos the project had much promise.

Chemists – speak.

Mark

i heard that there was a number of Sunderlands at the bottom of windermere? would be cool if anyone has found anything on these?

Are there meant to be some flying boats in lake Windermere?

Another example of a freshwater wreck

A b-17f tailplane is salvaged from a lake.
Just take a look at the paint it’s still intact after 55 years on the bottem of a lake.
Warning BIG pics
Pictures are from the Air Pirates website

Originally posted by Der
Loch Ness is freshwater by the way, and full of peat, which must have helped preserve the Wellington.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t peat acidic? The high acidity in Scottish soils is why much archaeological material is destroyed. Even highly diluted in Loch Ness, a high acidity from peat wouldn’t have done the Wellington airframe much good. Presumably it is this that has caused the pitting and corrosion previously mentioned.

Having had a look at R-Robert at Brooklands I have to agree with Whitley_Project on the state of it’s geodectics. They are very pitted.

WRT salt water wrecks, as well as nets, large currents tend to speed the deterioration process. If a solid ship can fall apart in 50 years, then a light aluminium airframe is not going to put up much resistance.

www.divernet.com & www.warbirdalley.com are good sources of links & info.

Does anyone know the current status of the Devastator ? The last I read they had put a sacrifical anode on it to try to slow corrossion whilst they worked out what to do next after retrieving the cockpit canopy frame for analysis.

www.pacificwrecks.com is a good source of photos of sunken aircraft. Whilst the returning to flight of US Navy Daunlesses pulled out of Lake Michigan after missing the USS Wolverine are well documented, does anyone know of any salt water wrecks that have taken to the air again ?

Sometimes it can be for the best if the wreck is left on the lake bed.
If I just mumble Dornier Do24, recovery, Lake Biscarrosse, France, SCRAP, and leave this link and the rest to your vivid over imagination…
http://www.dornier24.com/pages/production/1007.html

Flood.

Didnt that Hurricane in Malta come out of salt water?
Not a bad job by anyones standards.
Loch Ness is freshwater by the way, and full of peat, which must have helped preserve the Wellington. If memory serves, the tail light lit up when current was applied, there was still fuel in the tanks, and some of the fabric with paint still on it was visible when they pulled it out.

I totally agree with you generally though – seems to me a lot of damage that occurs to aircraft wrecks in the sea is exacerbated by fishermans nets.

One of the best preserved chunks of aircraft i ever saw was on some mudflats in the pacific – it was either a beaufighter or beaufort centre section (must have been aussie and the engines were nearby). For an esturine wreck in the tropics the metal was pristine – not a single bit of corrosion.

Hi Whitley,

thats very true. I was making a general remark about fresh versus salt water but there will always be exceptions. If I were a betting man I would choose the fresh water wreck sight unseen as a more likely candidate for restoration.

Freshwater isn’t always kind to aluminium – I have seen several wrecks that came out of freashwater that are quite badly corroded – the Loch Ness Wellington had – to quote Robin Holmes ‘Geodetics like swiss-cheese!’ (You have to read it in a Scottish accent for full effect 🙂

I have also seen some amazingly well preserved aircraft and parts come out of the sea – corrosion is a funny thing.

ju-88 salvaged in Norway in 2000

this aircraft is now under restoration as a static display

more info on this particular aircraft on:http://home.no.net/tormchri/

Tanner if you want to include more photos press again on IMG
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