Here are a few photos of the excavation of a Vampire F.B. Mk.5 we carried out yesterday. We found pretty much what we expected from the signals we had from Nick’s Forster and Fisher Gemini machines.
For more info see http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/projectvv602.htm
Enjoy 🙂
By: merkle - 29th June 2008 at 22:42
I would be out there with the jet wash but water is falling from the sky at a high rate.
I had actually done most of that page in advance, only the details of the dig were written up last night.
The damage to the cannon was probably caused first by it hitting a stone wall and U bending the barrel, the site used to have a wall across it, and then the engine caught up with it and smashed the breach. All in less than 1/10th of a second.
would love to see a photo of the bits when there all cleaned up 😀
By: Alan Clark - 29th June 2008 at 13:58
I would be out there with the jet wash but water is falling from the sky at a high rate.
I had actually done most of that page in advance, only the details of the dig were written up last night.
The damage to the cannon was probably caused first by it hitting a stone wall and U bending the barrel, the site used to have a wall across it, and then the engine caught up with it and smashed the breach. All in less than 1/10th of a second.
By: N.Wotherspoon - 29th June 2008 at 13:23
Good Day Out!
Nice Pics Alan 😀
the ground looks quite rocky in the area, it must have hit with some force to bend a 20mm like that !!:eek:, is the other piece the remains of the back of the goblin engine??,or saying that is it the crumpled Jet pipe ??
please post some pics when you clean it up,
best regards
Chris C
Largest lump is the back of the Goblin with most of the rear main frame of the engine still attached – hence the weight! The aircraft had blasted a crater approx 5 feet deep and 15 feet across in basically shale rock, leaving only hundreds of tiny fragments actually embedded by the impact and the momentum scattering the rest, including larger parts over a very wide area – a local farmer who came to view the dig had actually witnessed the crash and his signed statement appears on the AIB report we had – He told us that one U/C leg was found months after the crash when they were pumping out a slurry pit nealy half a mile away! Much of what we found was obviously thrown back in the crater during the clear up – possibly to try to fill it up – even Gareth our in-house digger operator (& very good too :D) struggled to find enough soil to make as neater job as we like to of the site, when we had finished.
From a detecting point of view it was interesting to note just how strong the signals indicated by our deep-seekers were, due to the massisve amount of stainless steel in a jet-engine – we already suspected this from experience. Also the level of destruction no longer surprised us either – Jet crashes are a totally different proposition & we knew this – However it was still a great day out and some worthwhile finds – probably just enough for a display at the museum – too much material puts visitors off in our experience & only as to be stored.
Finally credit to Alan for writing everything up so quickly and getting it on the website – excellent job too 🙂 – even if he is showing me up! :p No doubt he is sifting through that big sack of smaller parts as we speak.
By: merkle - 29th June 2008 at 08:19
Nice Pics Alan 😀
the ground looks quite rocky in the area, it must have hit with some force to bend a 20mm like that !!:eek:, is the other piece the remains of the back of the goblin engine??,or saying that is it the crumpled Jet pipe ??
please post some pics when you clean it up,
best regards
Chris C
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June 29, 2008 at 12:58 am