Thunderbolt

Thanks “Mercle” you beat me to the post

Yes a very sucessfull recovery was carried out last weekend which did not look promersing due to the bad weather, however with a excellent landowner not wanting us to get wet and a clear opening in the sky, a full recovery was achieved with the help of a few cups cream tea, cornish paties and clotted scones & jam greatfully to the team of the farmer

As a boy the landowner actually seen the Thunderbolt crash on his farm in a late september evening in 1943 with the pilot bailing out safely, luckly for the team with witnesses becomming increasing difficult to find he remembered exactly where it crashed, telling us that he remembers the recovery team giving up trying to retreive the aircraft from the smoking crator 64 years ago. Keen to check out the accuracy of our witness he took us out into the open field and said its by here, sure enough he was about 15ft from the impact point located by our magnetometer which indicated the remians of a large radial buried.

All the nessary permissons were obtained off the MOD to recover the american fighter and a licence was granted, I will post a link with full details of the recovery, aircraft detail, pilot and its interesting history here when our webpage has been uploaded including a few photos of the finds when they go on display, all of which are in the process of being clean up so it may take a few weeks especally as complaints have been made the state the boys come back in after a wash off:D .

Still a lot of cleaning to do on the engine and articfacts yet but after close inspection even the merlin boys would fail to get this running dispite its preservation in the mud with all its paint still good as new:diablo:

High flyer

Well i have been watching thie many zoyland post with interest as it is not that far a drive from where i live, Not sure what the other people think but it seems to me that this project has no sence of direction, one minute u are seeking help with a cleaning up operation, then a hanger, and now i read that you have bought in aircraft for display yet still no sign of the hanger or does that need planning permisson?

Dont get me wrong i hope it comes off for you as i would like to put some stuff on display but surely you must start off with the basics first. Sadly as with most musiems they are hardly stay afloat financually unless they have a good sponser to help on public liability insurances ect, and run of the mill costs.

I wish you boys the best of luck but personally i think a lucky lottery ticket is need to get this ambishon of the ground.

Bob the builer

Last time i drove by the airfield it was looking a bit past referbishment, think it would cost millons to get this upto any standard where you could charge the public to hold car boots or what ever. think the only thing that could be held on the site in its present condition is banger racing, other wise i could see some hefty claims off the old no win no fee agents by people falling in all the pot holes. Most proberlly cheaper to flatten it and start a fresh site as i can never see this project taking off:D

Does the aircraft still have its licence to have fly ins or has it been since handed back over to farm land?

Big project boys but all the best

Radial engine

Thanks,
good dig in hand then, shame its a whitley, bloody useless they were,
i suppose the engines are worth recovering, nice rocker covers, and some nice early data plates , as for the rest ,
Game on,
as for the blenhiem wouldnt mind a cockpit off of one of them, but i bet theres not much left of it especailly with sea water and all,
but if it all cant be saved then cut the nose off at least

spitfires are a little thin on the ground now to be dug up apart from the odd nutty farmer who wont allow access. rare old bird the whitley even though they are not the most streamlined and good looking,. Well if you are that keen to try your luck to find a engine, I was told of the remains of German DB801 engine on the firing range at lulworth granade range from a FW190 12 months ago by a warden. Wont even need a digger as its sitting on the top, just a good flac jacket.

Think with a bit of talking you could get access especally in the closure periods. I will sent you a map ref if you are keen or is that to ambisous and a little south for you

Definitely a paddle-type de-H or Ham Stan as fitted to B17, B24, Ventura and Mossie (with minor differences). I’d put a bet on Mossie meself.
Get a shovel and check out the type of engine it’s attached to – the first three a/c types had radials the Mossie a Merlin so it would be fairly conclusive – if you can run fast enough to beat the tide!

Flown over this one and pritty sure its the mosquito that crashed post war,think the poor crew are still missing its its the same aircraft.

Suposidly a whitley in the mud somewhere on the severn banks including a mk1 spitfire and tiffy near the river bridge, is that merlin still floating on 45 gallon barrels down the severn off a spitfire a recovery team dug or has it been washed up, think it broke off while towing it away about 20 years ago

😀

Thanks,
good dig in hand then, shame its a whitley, bloody useless they were,
i suppose the engines are worth recovering, nice rocker covers, and some nice early data plates , as for the rest ,
Game on,
as for the blenhiem wouldnt mind a cockpit off of one of them, but i bet theres not much left of it especailly with sea water and all,
but if it all cant be saved then cut the nose off at least

Well told the location of it if you fancy getting you feet wet, its should be in good condition as it has fresh water flowing onto the site. Like you said the back end is already missing so it would make a nice cockpit project.

Hooked up onto it one day fishing but the old dingy would not pull it out:diablo: a real shipping hazzard:D

fake?

well i have seen several Rolls Royce perigunes data plates about claiming to be the real thing, i think it looks a bit of a fluke, Anyhow thought that all Whestland Whirlwind serials numbers started 69—–

Dare devil

Cees

I have photos but am reluctant to post them.

Oh go on post the pics, its no as if you are going to get banned is it from visiting:diablo: Perhaps there is a law on posting photos of artifacts said to be “crown property” which fell on british soil. MBE could i have one?, it seems its not what you do here any more but who you know