Burma Spitfire Press Conference November 28

[Dan K]

It would appear we're about to be updated...9:30 a.m. London time.


http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... tQ&ct=clnk

[bdk]

Fingers and toes crossed....

[Dan Johnson II]

"The next steps in the search for..."

Thought they 'found them' already

[Noha307]

Here we go.

BTW, that's 4:30 AM EST for those too lazy to convert the time themselves.

[Richard W.]

Anyone hear any news from the press conference?

[Dan K]

Anyone hear any news from the press conference?

Perhaps this? Excavation begins in January.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/worl ... years.html

[Iclo]

How it's possible to estimate the time necessary to restore these plane before having found them ??

On personnal note, I have the ultimate problem to estimate the time me and my father will need to complete the restoration of our 1928 Citroen car. (And the car is not inside a box in the jungle)

Iclo in "Wait and see" mode

[DH82EH]

I, like many, am waiting excitedly in the "cautiously optimistic" camp.

For argument sake, what effect would the arrival of a couple of dozen Mk XIV spitfires have, on the value of the currently known ones?

I'm not expecting a $500 fire sale or anything, but there can't help but be some kind of an impact. Another interesting factor could be that enough machines could go through a restoration facility to raise efficiency to a small run production standard. (lower costs).

Yet another impact I can envision is demand for after market improvements to the Griffon engines, not unlike what we have seen with the Merlin.

Here's hoping for an interesting announcement tomorrow. Spitfires for all!!!

Andy Scott

[k5083]

How it's possible to estimate the time necessary to restore these plane before having found them ??

Maybe 3 years is the time required to build one from scratch and affix one of the Burmese data plates.

August

[k5083]

DH82EH, in the best case scenario where these are easily restorable airframes, it may even raise, not lower, the going rate for Spitfires.

There would still not be enough to create a truly liquid market in the sense that anyone wanting a Spit would have several competing offers to choose from at a given time. Even if there were 100 flying, they would still be rarer than Stradivarius violins or Picasso paintings.

Right now Spits and Mustangs trade for more than other fighters partly because there are more of them. More restoration and maintenance expertise and infrastructure, parts availability, owner community increases the practicality of ownership (in a very relative sense) and makes them more valuable. This seems to outweigh any depression in prices caused by slightly less rarity than the other fighter types.

August

[bdk]

How it's possible to estimate the time necessary to restore these plane before having found them ??

On personnal note, I have the ultimate problem to estimate the time me and my father will need to complete the restoration of our 1928 Citroen car. (And the car is not inside a box in the jungle)

Iclo in "Wait and see" mode

iCloud, please post some photos of this Citroen project in the off topic forum! I'd love to see some photos.

[DH82EH]

Geez August,

I'm thinkin' that if there is a hundred, then the Royal Canadian Air Force might be lookin' to re-equip, given the state of the F-35 project.

Thanks for the reply. You always have interesting and intelligent contributions to WIX

Spitfires for everyone!!

Andy Scott

[Russ Blow]

I am hoping the values will go down a bit. Maybe I could trade my L 4 even for one fully restored!

[marine air]

The values for Spitfire basketcases will go down a little. The values for flyable Spitfires, especially Mk XiV's will go up. The cost estimates intially from the restoration shops will be cheapest initially, and then escalate for a few years thereafter.
If a few dozen are excavated and somehow found to be in a pristine state of preservation, the time to buy one would be at this time. As more are made airworthy, spare parts will evaporate and have to be made from scratch.
I'm basing these assumptions on how it went with the 25 Baghdad Fury's that were in storage in Orlando at Herndon Field. I was with my dad the day Johnny Williams picked his Fury, the first one sold, by Tallichet. They were selling for $25k, about one third to one fourth the price of a flyable P-51, or Corsair.
They were said to be in perfect shape. One only needed to extend the gear, bolt on the wings, unpickle the engines and go fly!

[Iclo]

iCloud, please post some photos of this Citroen project in the off topic forum! I'd love to see some photos.

Hello bdk,

I will do that soon. It's always a pleasure to share this kind of project.