Snoopy7422Stones & Bones.
Snoopy: certainly the recovery of the aircraft is important, but the human aspect for the family of the pilot must surely prevail. One problem with the recovery of the aircraft (among many others) is that the remains of the pilot just could still be near the wreck, and its removal could spoil chances of finding, and identifying them. The bones found by qattara might not be those of F/Sgt Copping, as I have said before: human bones near the surface are not that rare in the desert.
No. All that’s needed for the location of the wreck is a GPS co-ordinate. When it’s removed, a small cairn can be constructed from stones to fix the location to the last few yards. At least no one will feel motivated to steal the stones, and frankly, no one is going to travel out there to steal bones either anyway.
If these bones and artefacts are suspected of being Coppings, why weren’t they simply recovered for identification/elimination? It’s still not a logical reason to delay recovery of the a/c any further since we have already seen the damage that the publication and delay have caused. :rolleyes:
Snoopy7422Priorities.
This sorry tale grinds on, and the a/c is still there being picked over. If the pilot has been found, that a nice closeure for all concerned. I’m more than a little surprised if they have found him however, unless he was very close indeed….. The desert is simply vast, as are the odds of finding him. If the remains found are not him, it’s a pity, but logically, not surprising. If the remains are not those of the pilot, one must accept that his remains may never be found….
The idea that efforts to keep looking for the remains of the pilot (It took seventy years to find the much larger a/c..!) – whilst the a/c is picked-clean are illogical. Any idiot with a GPS can find the a/c. It really ought to have been extracted from there by now. Sadly, no amount of hurry will bring the pilot back to life, but further delay and obfuscation, as has already been evidenced, will see the a/c further vandalised.
It’s a great pity that the finders had to blab this to the internet before the a/c was properly recovered. Ideally, the very first port of call should have been the British Embassy.
Snoopy7422Being one who watched the BAE mossie go in at Barton I would love to see another airbourne as a tribute.
I’d like to see ‘airborne’ spelt correctly. :p
Snoopy7422Einstein – 1905.
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Snoopy 7422
With the splitting of the atom at, if I remember rightly, the Cavendish Laboratory in or around 1922, by Messrs. Cockcroft, Rutherford and Walton it was Britain rather than Germany that initiated research into the development of the atom bomb.John Green
‘E=Mc2’ – Albert Einstein proposed mass–energy equivalence in 1905 in one of his Annus Mirabilis papers entitled “Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?” The equivalence is described by the famous equation: E=MC2. Einstein was the first scientist to propose the E = mc2 formula and the first to interpret mass–energy equivalence as a fundamental principle that follows from the relativistic symmetries of space and time.
ooops. 🙂
Snoopy7422‘Abandoned’, ‘Baled out’, ‘Got rid’, ‘Vacated’, ‘jumped’….???
Snoopy7422Huh…
They obviously achieved such a high price because of their rarity; an association with a pilot who ejected from his Spitfire makes them unusual and desirable.:rolleyes:
If he ‘ejected’ from a Spitfire, then he’s a VERY unusual chap….! :D:p
Snoopy7422No Apologies Needed.
I agree with CD’s post (Except the ‘unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor’, but he knows I like to tease him on that one…!). Where CD’s post stopped short was that not only would the continuation of the war have resulted in further horrific casualties on all sides, but it would have allowed continued technological research. As they proved, the Germans were streets ahead in terms of advanced weaponary. Wire-guided and TV-guided missiles – I ask you…! As it was, there is no way that the invasion would have been a sucess without BC’s campaign.
Lets say that, conservatively, the war had raged-on for another two years, as is entirely feasable. There wouldn’t have been a Jew left alive in Europe or any of the Axis occupied territories. That’s just for starters. More importantly, the Germans research on the Atom Bomb would have moved forwards. Of course, they were behind the Manhattan Project, but lets remember where the research originated. In Germany of course. Churchill and Rooseveldt were well aware of the fact that the Germans were trying to develop the A-Bomb too. Furthermore, the Germans had the only practical Balistic Rocket to efficiently deliver it……..!!! There were even plans for longer-range versions to go all the way to the USA….. A serious delay in cessasion of hostilities would have opened a real Pandoras Box.
There is little or no doubt that if the war had dragged-on in Europe, then the Allies would have used nuclear weapons against Germany too. Not a nice prospect. It’s a remorseless logic. One only has to watch the prescient ‘Things To Come’ to see that even in the 1930’s, people sensed these dark clouds on the horizon. Remember what WSC said about ‘..perverted science..’.
I’ve long held contempt for the quivering-lips that agonise over Dresden. Yes, God alone knows, it must have been truly horrific. However, so would the consequenses of the war being allowed to continue, perhaps not just by days, or weeks, or months, but by years. Could the Axis forces have won..? No, certainly not by the late stage of the war, but, this is 100% down to the Allied bombing campaign.
Think, for a moment, of the carnage wrought by German Night-Fighters. Imagine, if Hitler had have recognised the real potential of the Me262 on daylight operations. Indeed, the potential for this delay was very real indeed.
Harris’s ‘Old Lags’ did good, bless’em all.
Snoopy7422Great stuff.
Great to see a Mosquito nearing flight. I always though that a Mosquito stole any airshow. Can’t wait to see it fly. What a terrific achievement…!!! 🙂
Snoopy7422Title.
What’s the title of the doco please, chaps? Can’t access the ITV site.
Just ‘Bomber Command’ I believe.
Snoopy7422Couldnt help but be moved at the very end when they focused purely on the chaps, name , rank ,number of ops etc. and without sounding er, childish or ‘Boys Own’ I couldnt help think that if you gave those chaps a serviceable Lanc or a Halifax today what would be the chances of them getting it off the deck these days , do a circuit or two? I appreciate that after seventy odd years they might be a bit out of practice, But my money is that theyd soon have it all flooding back!. well thats my fantasy of the day satisfied. Well done on a fabulous programme!
I used to take quite a few ‘old lags’ flying years ago, but not in heavies of course. As I handed-over to one friend, I asked him what the last a/c was that he’d piloted, a Mosquito as it happened. He was pretty flaky for a few minutes. ‘This is like being back at OTU!’ he quipped, much to my embarrassment 😮 . Five minutes later however, he was completely at home and relaxed. I suppose, the basics are much like riding a bicycle…! I just left him to it…:)
He used to drag along a bunch of his pals from the golf club, – all ex-Bomber Command – and my reward was all the chatter over a meal at the pub later. Flying, crashing, bail-outs and being ‘in the bag’.(..and getting out of it too.). Great tales and fond memories. They were very funny too, and made very light of most of their travails.
Whilst night flying, my friend told me – ‘The last time I did this, – I was shot down….’ I must say, that did rather bring it home to me. They were all a lovely bunch of fellers, and mostly, of course, no longer with us. Most of the early-war guys are gone.
Despite what they went through, they were neither triumphal ,nor mawkish, which is worth noting for some ‘enthusiasts’ today who are bereft of such sensitivity.
For the most part, after the war, they went back to civilian and ground-based occupations. Flying for the King was part of their youth – and they’d all moved on, and more often than not, one wouldn’t see any aviation-related items around their houses. Scratch the surface though, and it all came flooding back.
Snoopy7422Smashing.
Saw this MkI on Sunday, – a real treat. Even more so to see it in formation with other early models. They were also noticably quieter. The story behind the airscrew will be fascinating in it’s own right I’m sure. 🙂
I’ve only just taken the time to read this thread. I saw it growing, and guessed that some of the growth came from negative verbiage. Blimey, what can one say…. except well done to all the team behind this a/c.
Snoopy7422A Ghost Of Aviation.
Stepwilk;- I’ve pondered the hilarity of them actually finding something several times. Could they be there..? Of course, and in a zilion other places too. 🙂
Their chances are less than winning the Lotto.
Ultimately however, the whole thing is a rather pointless exercise. There will be no bones, and a miniscule chance of finding something 100% identifiable. It won’t bring her back to life, only break the spell, and for what….?
Cases like the pilot recently found by accident in the desert are a little different (I cringe at the thought of some toe-rag kicking the remains around.), but personally, in cases like Amelias, I’m all for allowing history a little dignity and letting sleeping dogs lie. After all, many sunken ships are treated with respect and left in peace. Sadly these ‘recoveries’ are often driven more by the egos of those involved. It’s their ‘hobby’…
Personally, I hope that she remains a mystery, enigmatic, – a whisp on the wind. 🙂
As Joni Mitchell sang;-
A ghost of aviation,
She was swallowed by the sky,
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly,
Like Icarus ascending,
On beautiful foolish arms,
Amelia, it was just a false alarm.
S.
Snoopy7422What a shame.
It was breezy at Duxford with around 25kt, but straight down the slot. Not a massive problem for the mostly heavier a/c there. I believe there would have been something of a cross wind at OW, so it crossed my mind that it’d be hard work for some of the lighter types there.
I was sad to hear of this accident on my way back from Duxford. It just goes to show that some innocuous-looking types can still bite. It’s very sad for him and those immediately affected.
Such tragedies have always happened and he won’t be the last for sure. Safety can be a drag at times, but without the improvments seen over the years, losses would be much higher. OW also has an excellent safety-record.
I’ll certainly be offering my support by visiting OW a couple of times this year.
Per ardua ad alta.
Snoopy7422lol…
The BBC TV News this morning seemed to have been informed that she had ‘survived a few days on an island’. I wonder who told them that..? :rolleyes:
Maybe they’ll find Howard Hughes and Elvis there as well. They may have all used the same hair lotion.:diablo:
Snoopy7422Um…
The first is probably Herc.
The second one looks like an Allison, sans the reduction gear and front pair of cylinders.
:p
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