damn - thought I got in first with this bit of news

A new twist to the Burmese Spitfire story!?
 

I play World of Tanks as well as Cliffs of Dover and I read this over at the World of Tanks EU forum!

Wargaming to fund quest for Spitfires!

Don't konw what it means for the Spitfires and the original dicoverer David Cundall ... It looks like the hunt is being taken seriously.

I honestly think that funding is the main problem. Funding itself is probably the goal. Not the recovery of anything else.
The real treasure comes from the dreamers who are willing to part with their money.

Burma Spitfires (again).
 

Interesting interview here:

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/int...-burma/1038352

RedToo.

Very exciting and especially that they are crated. My father was involved in the recovery of WWII aircraft and parts around Australia's Northern Territory. As a kid, I remember seeing buried Spitfires at the old Gorrie Airfield but they had seemingly been roughly shunted into shallow graves and covered up.

It's interesting that the story has struck such a chord in the mainstream press. It is a shame that there is still no evidence of so much as a tail wheel though.

Three things strike me as interesting about this story now, apart from the obvious one of how this story has travelled without one single scrap of physical evidence, documentary evidence or eyewitness reports and they are;

1) The disappearance of Steve Boultbee-Brooks, the British "Donald Trump" lol, from this story. A man with serious money, serious political connections and his own school to train Spitfire pilots! He travelled out to Burma earlier in the year with his own team to survey the "evidence" before committing money to this project. Could their own investigations in Burma convinced them that this is pie in the sky?

2) The "Geophysical survey" was conducted by a grad student with a powerful metal detector not the ground penetrating radar that had "revealed the outlines of crates" according to Mr. Cundell's earlier statements when this story broke.

3) They hit some wood with their digger but decided not to investigate what the wood was or what was beneath it!!? Come on......after fifteen years and tens of thousands of pounds and a search that has taken over this guy's life they decide to cover it up before having a peek!!!

That seems to fly in the face of human nature to me but we shall see.

Yes, that last part of the story about finding the "crate" yet not opening it has shades of the Oak Island "money pit" malarkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Isl..._the_Money_Pit

Hmmm. Does seem to be a pie in the sky kind of thing.."yeah, we hit wood, then stopped due to..(insert spin)". This could qualify as a media hoax.

Burmese Spitfires, BBC news update
 

Seems like the project to recover them is to go ahead in January! Viktor Kisily CEO of Wargaming is funding the project! Burmese Spitfires

I thought that was funny :)

Lets hope its not a rubbish dump they are digging up.

Congratulations goes out to yet another successful capitalist Viktor.

He couldn't do it without all you working stiffs that play World of Tanks.

Because without you men this man would not be able to live your I mean his dream of owning the coveted Spitfire.

Congratulations Viktor.

Any bets on what is there?

Get back on topic or get out of the thread or just don't post! It's supposed to be about the Burmese Spits, not a flame war about about communism or anything else???

Well in a slightly off-topic way the discussion is actually about the way the British Government handed a huge number of potentially valuable historical aircraft, manufactured and paid for by the British people, over to some rich git so he can profit from it :D

Salute

It is my opinion this whole system of labelling a political entity 'Communist', 'Fascist' or 'Capitalist' is a smokescreen.

What it really comes down to is whether the ordinary person in the society has a fair shake at getting his fair share and expressing his opinion as to how the powers that be can push him around.

Despite being ideologically at the opposite end of the political spectrum, there was in fact not a lot of difference between Stalinism and Nazism, primarily because the two people at the top were both cold blooded sociopaths who thought nothing of murdering millions.

In fact there are political systems from all spectrums which work pretty well. Singapore is basically a one party state with quite restricted freedoms and freedom of speech, but as a society it does work extremely well and most people who live there are pretty happy with their lot. For all the detractors of Cuba, the communist government does a pretty good job there too, the literacy, health system and median income are WAY above most comparable countries in Central America or the Caribbean. (before you let loose the hounds of hell on me, no I don't think it's an ideal situation, hopefully they institute some reforms)

And there are so called democracies which are not very functional. For example Columbia, which has a so-called democratic capitalist system in place and which gets favoured status from the US as a free trade partner, sees a huge murder rate, thousands 'disappeared' by paramilitary death squads, an epidemic of rapes and abuse of women, as well as corruption on a huge scale, with the judiciary and elected officials routinely owned and under the orders of drug cartels. Not a very positive situation.

I think if people got away from labels, and started to look at the facts on the ground, we would have a stronger likelihood of the world becoming a better place.

lol.
My best friend is currently there - he hates the place.
No smoking
Beer $7 to go
A room in a flat share $1500(!)
Asian mentality when they work with Europeans.

He left in October, the Bank wanted him to stay for 3 years or so - the way things look like right now he will be back in April.

You probably only like the place if you're from China or North Korea.

Libya under Gaddafi wasn't such a bad place either. Free health-care, free universities, scholarships for studies abroad etc. ;)


There are none, at least no crated ones.

Welcome to capitalisim.





Meanwhile back at the ranch....................

I still think its a pile of old bully beef tins and rusty helmets down there.



.

yeah ... chances are back in the 40's some enterprising beer bellied supply sergeant traded the Spits for a few crates of cigarettes and some good whisky and buried a batch of cardboard replica's instead :D

There would be plenty of red faces if it turned out to be nothing or not what they thought it was!! LOL :-P

I'm willing to bet on that result.

I'm sure the red faces would be among the investors. The excavation team themselves have got their rewards already. From the aforementioned.

The investors already got what they wanted. They were mentioned in all the big newspapers - around the globe(!).
If you wanted to achieve this the regular way, it'd be way more expensive.
Think red bull - baumgartner.

Then everybody is happy. No need to find any Spitfires :-).

In fact finding them would spoil everything.

... and finally...
 

Further news on the Burmese Spitfires:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/w...-launches.html

and about 2 hours ago:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-20910980

~S~

The opportunity for a Spitfire Futures Market perchance ?

Hi all,

Interesting:

The project's lead archaeologist Andy Brockman, a specialist in modern conflict, remains open-minded about what they may discover.


Best Regards,
MB_Avro

Burma Spitfires Updates 8 1 13.
 

Part two of Adam Booth's blog:

http://geolog.egu.eu/2013/01/08/a-st...-burma-part-2/


Pics showing where the Spits are buried (if they exist):

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...116104&page=30

Go down to post 879.

RedToo.

They've fond a crate (that's a storage crate, not an aircraft/crate) but they can't see what's in it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20957162

Even more important - they have found water.

Makes me wonder if it already was there during their test-drills. ;)

Thanks for this thread, I'll follow the news here! Great to have links to the geophysicist, BBC, forums, etc, all in one place.

Latest info 11 1 13
 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01...#ixzz2HcP55sga

http://www.iconocast.com/01-09-2013/...tain-plane.php

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/soe-the...013203849.html

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/photos/soe-...065527893.html

RedToo.

There are definately some Spits in Burma ...
 

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...116104&page=37

Posts number 1086 and 1089.

There seem to be some more interesting things in that hangar too.

RedToo.

Your welcome.



The famous Secret Hangar

Wonder if they have been dug up already ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rRArnold-1.jpg

They're looking in the wrong place. They should be looking in the bloomin' hangar!

There are about 6 Spitfires there. If they found 6 in the groung it would be a sensation. Here they are in perfect condition and no digging needed.

Little tidbit from Burma:
 

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...116104&page=38

Post 1129

RedToo.

Looks like they have their share of thoughtless forum trolls and idiots also.



"Not only the press but the Burmese Authorities read this forum. Please be aware that, banter aside, green paint and hats, skepticism all fine etc ,
some of the posts of press reports of erroneous incidents at the site, for example, have created problems for the team.
Losing face is a big issue to the Asian people"





.

You have to find a way of killing them off before they reproduce. Otherwise you're always going to be stuck with them.
:-)


.

"Archaeologists believe no Spitfires buried in Burma. Wargaming.net, the firm financing the dig, has also said there are no planes."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21074699

Oh well, when it seems too good to be true it most often is...

Interesting times we live in ...
 

Burma Spitfires latest:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showp...postcount=1542

RedToo.

Soo ... according to that article. They are digging in the wrong spot because its safer and makes a better TV documentary even though everyone knows there are no Spitfires there? Furthermore the one borehole in the "right" area found what may be a crate at depth but even if it is a spitfire crate its full of water ?

Sounds a right royal stuff up already.

More obfuscation and intended confusion from Mr. Cundall. Crate full of water will take "weeks" to pump out. Wtf?

Serious archeologists with a reputation to maintain have now examined Mr. Cundall's "witness statements" and the other "evidence" he has accumulated in detail and pronounced it Bollox.

I told you.:grin:

How does Duralumin hold up under water?????? I'm not sure it's noted for it's corrosion resistance.

Burmese authorities stopped the dig.
 

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showp...postcount=1644

RedToo.

Dunno, but this one seems to have held up quite well;
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...78c9f70_L1.jpg

What is a "conflict archaeologist"? Is it a derogatory term for a specialist who is sceptical of the dig, or is it an archaeologist with particular knowledge of the conflict in Burma?

Archaeologist specialising in the archaeology of war.

RedToo.

Aha. Thanks, I thought it might be the archaeological equivalent of whiner.

Update 28 1 13.
 

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/nat...ire-dream.html

RedToo.

I honestly thought it referred to the conflict between the archaeologists and the Burmese government; the gubernatorial/archaeologistical fracas.

It looks they might at last start digging in the right place (where they originally found a crate), and not miles away at another location as they have been doing. No wonder the press all went home.

Update 30 1 13.
 

Balanced piece here on the sponsors website:

http://worldofwarplanes.eu/en/blog/ground-truthing

RedToo.

They wont mess around out there they will kick them out if the rumour mongers continue as they are.

Its just a sign of the times that if there's no instant gratification the knives come out and this story seems to go with that trend, if it were 20 years ago we would know little about it until it was all over and a statement issued in the press, lets hope the forum trolls and press hogs all leave them to get on with what they went there to do without acting like a bunch of kids "I want I want I want" .

I sincerely hope they find something related to the RAF I just don't hold much hope for brand new crated wrapped in grease serviceable Spitfires, I guess I can hope though :)

you could shove over all your money to me, I guarantee you 25% - p.a.
If it doesnt work out you still can hope, though.

You're being had.

Videos from Burma ...
 

... now on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_dn_4EaEno

4 or 5 altogether.

RedToo.

Once people in floppy hats and flouro get involved its all down hill.

Update 11 2 13.
 

Posted by the Burma Spitfire team on FB on 11 2 13:

"Hi all, so things are apparently progressing pretty well, albeit at a fairly glacial speed. Because it's a working airport, the team need to work during quiet periods, which means a total of 1-2 hours a day. They are also having to dig by hand, due to the sensitive nature of the area they are digging, so there's little progress made each day. On top of this, the licence to dig needs to be reapplied for each and every single day. Seriously. So there's still a lot of work ahead. We appreciate that the info we are able to provide is pretty patchy and incomplete. It's frustrating for everyone. However, there are very good reasons we can't currently provide as much background info as perhaps we would like. This is just how things have to play out at the moment. For what it's worth, David remains really positive he'll get the result we are all hoping for."

RedToo.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia...nmar-abandoned
Viking

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showp...postcount=2323

"I now have received a copy of the Wargaming press release.

The have to exit with some diginity.

For me while David Cundall and the Burmese team are still mapping in preparation for further digging, with a year plus license, I personally will give it until the start of next monsoon.

Still a way to run yet."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21483187


LOLOLOLOLOL!

Full press release from the sponsors.
 

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showp...postcount=2334

RedToo.

Nice fairy tale, that doesnt seem to have a happy ending!

Tom Cundall seems to be in a bit of a rut.

+1

Said so from day one. Shame, coz we all hoped it was true, but isn't it weird how by the time they admitted it was a myth, the number of potentially buried Spits rose to 124?

I seem to remember that the original number 'potentially buried' was about 6.

Just a big 'pfffft!' all round really.

:lol:

i bet it all begun with an internet troll