What wouldn’t I give to find this much airframe on one of our excavations, but that’s the beauty of digging an undisturbed site, where a lot of the aircraft was left in situ.
In the south east of England where we operate, most of the airframe has usually been recovered at the time of the crash. It’s a bit like visiting the spot where a road accident happened several weeks before, and finding a few bits of broken indicator cover, or licence plate.
What we find are the bits that were missed at the time by those tasked with recovering what they could, those that couldn’t be reached, and what was not considered worth taking away. Probably the best we can hope for is a reasonably intact engine, but normally what we find are some nice pieces of skinning, and various other small broken and twisted pieces of metal.
However small the contents of the ‘finds’ bags can sometimes be, they are a tangible link to an incident, and more importantly to the pilot or crew of that aircraft. A nice story and photographs are nothing without these fragments of aircraft.
If the programme has got you interested in aviation archaeology, then why not come along to our museum this summer, after we open on Easter Sunday. Robbo & Andy in beds have both visited us, and I’m sure they will tell you what a little gem you’ll find at Shoreham.
Geoff.
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