WWII RAF Spitfire of Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn found

[4RG.I.'S]

This is an amazing find! And the plan is to restore it to flying condition!

https://www.foxnews.com/science/extreme ... n-mountain

[phil65]

Flying condition....

Phil

[Jesse C.]

So, they found a Data Plate?

[airnutz]

Restore??????

[Dan Jones]

He claims that this airplane is the only one with a real tangible link to any of the "Great Escapers", but Peter Fanshawe's Blackburn Skua was recently recovered from the sea, and is substantially more than just "fragments".

[camshaw]

you would think with all the nice sunken fighters in all those lakes up there they would go after one of those instead of the pile of $200 scrap they found...

[Richard W.]

They might arrange the pieces in a small museum display to honor that young man and all the poor guys murdered after the breakout at Luft Stalag III, but a data plate restoration sounds like a bad idea.

[DH82EH]

There are quite simply, no longer as many substantially intact wrecks to recover.
As time goes on the restoration capabilities increase, while the input material becomes scarcer.
I am glad that there are groups and individuals interested and motivated enough to go to extreme lengths (and expense) to make these rare and in some cases extinct types return to display and even flight status. I'm very excited to see a PR-IV Spitfire completed to fly. I'm also excited to see a RR Puma powered DH-9 fly.
Both of these rebuilds will be entirely faithful and will utilize as much original material as possible.
My thanks to those who are doing. Just disregard any nay-sayers or complainers. Their negative input benefits nothing.

Andy Scott

[Joe Scheil]

I agree absolutely. This aircraft is an excellent candidate for a rebuild, and is “the best” of what is available now, 75 years after the battle. The arguments of the 1990’s (or a quarter century ago) no longer hold water. This is the best raw material we have.

Bravo to the recovery team....

[Zac Yates]

Thing is, there are two other PR.IVs that have been under restoration to fly for some time now. One even has its own website: http://www.spitfire-pr4.com/

[DH82EH]

Bring 'em on Zac!
I'm all for 'em.

Or should that be.... ....all IV 'em?

Andy

[JohnTerrell]

It is very much worth adding the foundation's original description that accompanied that photo showing the parts laid out in the Spitfire outline, via the AA810 Facebook page:

"We are proud to release this image of recovered wreckage of AA810. This layout was created in Norway shortly after the recovery and only comprises the parts which were immediately identifiable and able to be positioned on the stage. When AA810 impacted the mountainside, the crash site was largely covered in deep snow, which did a huge amount to cushion the impact. The wreckage slowly pushed through the snow and sunk into the soft peat ground below. Localized burning post impact is evident but the extent was mostly limited to the engine cowlings. As much original structure as possible will be incorporated into the rebuild. With around 70% of the aircraft recovered, the process of stripping and inspecting potential usable parts is a considerable undertaking and has been ongoing since August 2018. As is common with bog recoveries, steel parts have suffered considerably but the aluminium parts have been largely corrosion free. With modern heat treatment processes, as long as original material is not torn, it is perfectly possible to soften the material, reshape to original, and heat treat again to the required specification, thus ensuring as much original material can be reused. Concentrating on the fuselage initially, once the serviceable items have been identified, they will make their way to the sub-contractor to be utilized in the manufacture of new airframe parts where needed. Some identifiable, but un-serviceable and un-restorable, parts will be incorporated into various memorial projects for the men of the PRU. However, the project wishes to make it clear that not a single piece of original material, even if unserviceable, will ever be disposed of."

There were a couple of extra 1-ton bags of other recovered parts that weren't even incorporated in that image. When completed, it will have more parts, original to the airframe, incorporated than at least a couple of Spitfires already flying that I'm aware of.

[airnutz]

Thanks John, after googling about, I read the facebook earlier today but missed mention of the 2-tons of unseen remaining parts you noted. The largest pieces I've seen to date are the engine and about 1/2ish of the forward wing spar. It'll be interesting to see how much of the claimed 70% is actually able to return to airworthy. The initial photo of a jig-saw puzzle of pieces at the top of this page was abusing the word "restoration". We've had the new build/restoration discussion here hundreds of times....no need to flog that horse. It's a pre-funded project and they claim they'll be in the air by 2022...more power to 'em...regardless of constitution. I would have like to have seen the documentary of the recovery which ran on BBC4 yesterday in Britain...that might have been more informative than their news release.

[PeterA]

It was a privilege to be on the recovery team of this Spitfire PR IV AA810 this past July.

By an amazing coincidence this was to be one of three Spitfires recovered and loosely 'assembled' in as many months in Norway. The other two being Mk IX's, MK997 a lake recovery and MJ785 from a wood/farm location. All three are destined to be resurrected to airworthy status.

On the second day whilst the main party ventured up the mountain again, I started on the initial cleaning process and laid out a Spitfire profile to locate and present the collected parts for inspection at the town hall for the locals to view on day three.



A subsequent inspection of the parts back in the UK revealed what a close call Alistair Gunn had had. A 20mm cannon round had passed directly in front of his chest...and incidentally from a portion of wreckage that should yield a couple of 'top hat' stiffeners for the rebuild.



PeterA

[DH82EH]

Nice!
Thanks for that Peter.

Andy