Couldnt you use the Tornado imaging system mentioned earlier?? 🙂

Well there’s certainly no harm in asking I suppose! 😉

Thanks NW. Much else hiding in that marsh do you think?

P-51D, Mosquito – oh and just a Ju88 😀 – convincing English Nature to allow any other excavations is not going to be easy though 🙁 + you have to find them first!

To be fair, the timescale of the auction prevented a prudent approach to Vulcan ownership for anyone unfamiliar with the airframe in question.

Call me cynical, But I suspect that the previous owner was counting on this factor 😡

Recovery versus Memorial

Its good to see that the programme has generated some debate – everyone is entitled to their opinions. 🙂

In the eventuality of the aircraft structure being sound we had made contingency plans to finance a continued recovery as we knew from the start that TT would never accomplish this in 3 days! However the structure was as we honestly expected and the whole thing would have crumbled if disturbed. There were few smaller relics to remove as the systems had been stripped at the time of the crash – yet they left the guns & a turret!!! The engine was already detached and lying several feet in front of its bearers, so we had no qualms about lifting that – TT did seem keen to lift the nosewheel assembly out, but this would have destroyed the cockpit & we knew another one lay only 80 feet away.

Obviously all the guns had to be removed and the turret was again already seperated as was the gunners escape hatch + a few smaller parts, motors, panels etc. Yes the bulk of the aircraft was left intact and as I stated, now has a lagoon constructed over it for the birds which will be suitably named and eventually appear on the large scale maps of the area. I understand BAe overflew the site recently with a Tornado using some special imaging equipment and the shape of the aircraft can still be made out – making a sort of hi-tech memorial! We also considered a plaque at the edge of the marsh, but at the present we feel this would not last long 🙁 (for reasons I cannot go into at present).

“Useless in an emergency?”

I used to have a couple of original crowbars – until I got an offer I could’nt refuse 😉 I have to say I feel they were more of a morale booster than serious escape tool – they were very light and made of hollow thin wall steel tube with solid ends, one of mine looked as though someone had tried to open a crate with it before thinking better of it. I think if I had been trapped the old one-piece escape axe would have been my preferred option!

Very good but…. after 72hrs digging they left it there ?

Yep! It was a “fossil” only the spars and u/c were still metal, the rest was crystalline corrosion products and concretion around where the metal had been. We would have ended up with a pile of bits – the only reason it looks to have held its shape is the applied duralumin “armour” sheets around the cockpit. Plus it was a shell – most of the avionics, fire control and instrumentation had been removed at the time of the crash

After a discussion, we used the machinery available to excavate the second aircraft the day after filming – we knew that it was already in bits and one set of u/c legs etc is all that most visitors to the museum would want to see – it also seemed disrespectful to break Hubbards plane up just for a truck load of relics – It now has a specially created lagoon for the wading birds on top of it – which seems more appropriate (IMO).

The second aircraft did indeed prove to be broken up but yielded many artefacts including the predicted u/c legs – complete nose wheel with tyre still in its wheel well with cockpit floor attached, the control column, a few instruments (most had also been removed at the time of the crash), both rudder pedals and an intact pilots seat etc.

Its a shame that as a genuine WW2 type the B25 has not been preserved by the likes of the Newark, Coventry and Sunderland museums when they were relativly plentyfull in the uk in the early 80’s and even now. But I guess thats due to the asking prices?

Have been following this thread with interest – being an associate member of the RAF Millom Museum – we are just starting to acquire airframes to add to the collection – the usual selection up to now, Vampire, Canberra & recently a Tornado cockpit, but a WW2 veteran seems an unobtainable goal. I had no idea that aircraft like this still existed in such a state in this country today – how does this happen? You mention the asking price as a stumbling block – can I ask what this is & who is selling it – is it really for sale or is this just heresay?

Those who have visited our museum will have seen the work done on some of our airframes both by members and the local prison workshops + of course our extensive exhibits of smaller artefacts and relic items which recieved such favorable comment in Flypast recently. However it is seems very difficult these days to take the next step and despite the enthusiasm and resources we have available it seems that the hardest task is simply finding out details of aircraft that are available. :confused:

Seafire blade confirmed

Thanks Anne – much appreciated – don’t worry I am not going to inundate you with queries – most of my other blades are still attached to props or engines & having dug them up I know what they are off :rolleyes: