Prop The Real Thing 36 Spitfires found buried in Burma!!!!

Lee

Lee

Well-Known Member
Wow, that is fantastic news. 36!!! brand new. I will be very happy to see more Spitfires in the UK.
 
RandyDSok

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Cool stuff if true... I did a quick search on the info and from what I've found, it appears that they believe there are around 140+ of these buried here and there in SE Asia... this 36 is just a part of them. I also found that the exact numbers are in question...
 
wolfman76

wolfman76

Well-Known Member
not only that but according to the video link you posted frank they are extremely rare because of the engines in them they supposedly have roles royce engines in them and not the usual merlin engines common to the spitfire.. can you imagine 36 highly rare roles royce powered spitfires ... man i can't wait to see how this turns out....
 
T

TripodXL

New Member
Not to be a buzz kill on the Spitfires but this BBC article later on sort of puts the kabosh on the issue.... BBC News - Search for 'buried Spitfires' in Burma called off As far as the engines, neither is particularly rare. The Rolls-Royce Ltd. company manufactured the "Merlin" engine for both the Spitfire and the Avro Lancaster bomber (along with some other "lesser known" fighters and other engine variants even found in Packard autos if my memory serves me), so there were quite a number of them. There are still parts made for the Merlin engines today from specialty shops in Great Britain. The later Spitfires used the "Griffon" engine from Rolls-Royce which offered a 50%-ish increase in HP over the Merlin with 1000HP versus the Griffon's 1500HP. If the planes in question were of late WWII mfg they would have the Griffon engines, which I suppose would have made them "rare" in relation to the Merlin, but thousands were mfged by RR in any regard for the Spitfire and many other planes and other non-aircraft applications.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom