It bothers me a bit Andy that you as one of the folks who would like the Burma Spitfire bit to go away, would post something like this just to stir the pot some more. The usual suspects then come in with their commentary.

Frankly I believe you are better then that.

I think the B-17 ball turret chair would be easier to sell. Unlimited positions and twin 50’s as arm rests 🙂

Ho Hum

Do you have a copy of “The Geyser Gang”, the history of the 428th by John Stienko?

The 474th historian, whose Dad was 428th is around too. He sometimes posts on the WIX forum.

To be honest, I’d describe it more as a stripped-out hulk than a time capsule.

Probably best to throw it back in the lake or sell it for scrap.

I’m not 100% in favour of having the Halifax on display, but at least we can tell what it is!! The ‘last surviving’ argument isn’t helped by the Dornier’s condition.

Or we could grumble about the Halifax…..

🙂

You have to move on Dan…plus 10.

…and ‘XII’ is always tricky when you are reading out your email address over the phone.

‘Mark’

That is why mine has always been Spit12 🙂

[QUOTE=xtangomike;2034100]

You collected 4 posts..or maybe you missed one …say five posts out of 500 + posts, on this thread, that could be classed as negative……..not quite the numbers your ‘colleagues ‘ could direct their ‘whinging poms’ syndrome to. I doubt if they could even have found the famous 4, unless you directed them. 5 out of 500 makes …er..1%. Not bad I would say for an open forum.
So tell me where are all the other ‘doom merchants’ and ‘nay sayers’.

The overall tone of this thread and many threads involving recovery of aircraft have been negative and focused on what can go wrong. There is no denying that. It was certainly the case here and remains so in terms of the condition of the wreck, how it came up, etc.

I’ll be honest it gets very hard to read after a while and I do find myself skipping it. I understand it’s just talk and filling time.

At the same time that a one of a kind aircraft with that kind of history can be saved in any form is worth it if the funding is available, and apparently it was. I keep reminding myself that at 53 I don’t look nearly as good as when I came out of the factory or when I was first on Ops. And I haven’t been shot full of holes, ditched in the English Channel and submerged for 70 years.

I could use a little corrosion prevention and sympathetic restoration. Unlike the Do 17, it would probably help if my tire was a bit deflated too!

Below is a scan of a page taken from Arthur P Bove’s history of the 306th Bomb Group ‘First Over Germany’. The scenes, which unfortunately aren’t the sharpest even in the book seem to show a post-war open day and included in these are images which contain two P51s carrying the Group’s ‘Triangle H’. I presume that these were two of the aircraft use as Buckeye weather scouts flying ahead of the bomber formations as mentioned in Russell A Strong’s unit history of the same title.

Does anyone have any further details of these airframes and the pilots that were qualified to fly them? The aircraft with the steps beside it appears to have a tail-code ending in 2457 with Unit codes DF or OF, the identification number isn’t clear.

I’d suggest that by the time of an Open Day postwar, that the P51 in the photo is nothing more then a squadron hack as it’s a high back B/C which would have been a bit rare by that time as a front line bird, but was around in a lot of places as “War Wearies” that got used by both fighter and bomber groups for basically giving rides and fooling around in 🙂