Brit Spit Kits!

Mark II Spitfires (Fighter planes, not sports cars), OEM, NIB, buried in Burma ...

Holy mother of!!!!!

+1!!!!

Extremely cool. The Spitfire is, without doubt, the prettiest airplane ever made.

Awesome !!

Speak about a monument to excess

"new" Mark II Spitfires shipped in 1945 !?! I find that highly unlikely. The Mark II (without even looking), should be about 1941 vintage at best.

1945, I would guess at least MK XIV's (probably the "coolest" of the models and popular for that region), but more likely MK XX or better. Almost certainly Griffon engined versions either way.

Still wicked cool.

Here is a Mk XIV:

Hah, I was right. I was perusing the Wikipedia entry and found this:

In 1945, the RAF buried a number of Mk.XIV Spitfires in Burma, still unassembled in their crates, in order to prevent them falling into enemy hands or being destroyed. Their exact location has never been determined but in April 2012 the UK government announced they were working with the post-junta Burmese government to locate and potentially return the total of 20 aircraft to flying status. Leeds University experts and an academic from Rangoon, using sophisticated radar techniques claimed to believe they discovered the site of the buried aircraft. In addition to the 20 aircraft thought to be at this one site, other sites with buried Spitfires are believed to exist. One such site is thought to have up to 36 Spitfires alone buried and preserved.

The story I read earlier said the planes had Griffon engines.

Wiki says MkXII was the first Griffin engined plane and was operational in 1943.

And they're Mk.IIs?!?!? Fantastic! Doesn't this almost double the number of survivors in a single stroke?

(Yeah, I've read "Fly For Your Life". )

EDIT: Y'all type faster than I do. Still, amazing find.

Burma's pretty damp. I wonder how they have fared, being underground for ~70 years. Let's hope they are in better shape than that Chrysler which was buried in Tulsa, OK.

The article says the planes were built for 12,600 British pounds each. That would have been roughly what, $60,000 US?

Curmudgeon wrote: Burma's pretty damp. I wonder how they have fared, being underground for ~70 years. Let's hope they are in better shape than that Chrysler which was buried in Tulsa, OK.

Really... the article says they were covered in oil-wrap and wax or something... but I agree they may be a bit optimistic about the condition. I have a hard time imagining any storage prep lasting 70 years buried in those conditions. And when they buried that Chrysler, they had planned for a long-term burial. Inadequately planned, but planned nonetheless.

I'm having visions of them digging up big lumps of rust that sort of look like they were once plane parts. Hopefully I'm wrong.

If they can restore the Glacier Girl P-38 I'm sure cosmoline-coated Spits stuffed in crates ought to be a cakewalk!

They ought to scout the area to see if any of the locals are using Griffon or Merlin-powered tractors, water pumps, or lawnmowers.

In reply to slantvaliant: Do they have tractor pulls in Burma?

stroker wrote: In reply to slantvaliant: Do they have tractor pulls in Burma?

a rack of warbird engines bought to prevent the tractor bastards from ruining them

In reply to JoeyM:

If those are Allisons they're better off in tractors.

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

"Sorry, Squadron Leader, I can't quite understand your banter...?"

stroker wrote: In reply to JoeyM: If those are Allisons they're better off in tractors.

blasphemy!!

aircooled wrote: "new" Mark II Spitfires shipped in 1945 !?! I find that highly unlikely. The Mark II (without even looking), should be about 1941 vintage at best. 1945, I would guess at least MK XIV's (probably the "coolest" of the models and popular for that region), but more likely MK XX or better. Almost certainly Griffon engined versions either way.

That was the first thing that crossed my mind...they would have been well into the Mark 'teens' even by 1944. That said, to me the Spit is the prettiest fighter plane ever made...in fact I just got done working on my 1/48 MKVIII in RAAF colours.

stroker wrote: In reply to JoeyM: If those are Allisons they're better off in tractors.

Or P-38s.

They are a later model with Griffon engines. The following is from AVWEB

Resurrected Spitfires: The Find of the Century Email this blog |Print this blog

By Paul Bertorelli

When I was kid growing up and fantasizing about airplanes, I'd occasionally read stories about overlooked warehouses stuffed with factory-fresh airplanes slathered with cosmoline and awaiting only discovery by some lucky buyer. As I got older, I assumed these stories to be apocryphal, but when I met Bill Lear Jr. in the early 1990s, he assured me that for him it was true. As a teenager, he acquired a factory-new P-38 for some paltry sum and flew around the country for several years.

Our story on the Spitfire find in Myanmar — the former Burma — reminded me of Lear's experience. If the story pans out in detail and in scale, David Cundall's lifelong mission of discovery will be the aviation history find of the century. It has been well documented that by the end of the war, the military-industrial complex was so cranked up that hundreds of thousands of tons of unneeded material was shipped the world over only to be burned, blown up or dumped in the sea upon arrival. If these Spitfires are as well preserved as initial reports indicate, they may have been the rare exception to escape destruction. (Pray that we aren't being hoaxed here.)

The airplanes are reportedly Mark XIVs—not the classic Battle of Britain airplanes, but later-model ones with Griffon engines and five-blade props. If that's true and the airframes are salvageable, its seems likely we'll get to see them flying one day. Flying Spitfires are relatively rare sights in the U.S. I've seen Merlin-powered Spits fly maybe three or four times. I have never seen a Griffon version, although someone sent me a picture of one and even though I'm not a Spitfire expert, I immediately recognized it for the shape of the cowling, the exhaust ejectors and the prop.

So what are these things worth? A good question. Recent auctions and for-sale offerings have had Merlin versions between $2 and $3 million. Documented combat history makes them more valuable. Late in the war, each successive Mark was built in fewer numbers, although there appear to be spikes for some of the models. The Supermarine Mark nomenclature isn't necessarily sequential. A Battle of Britain vet would likely be the most sought-after airplane, value-wise, so I can only guess where the Griffon-powered versions would appraise. And what effect would having a half a dozen or more of them come on the market at once have, if it really comes to that? No one knows.

According to Wikipedia's entry on the Spitfire, its unit cost early in the war was about $50,000 in 1939 dollars. (That's about $770,000 in 2012 dollars.) So if these recently discovered airplanes really do sell for $3 million—if it even gets that far—it sounds like a great return on a measly $50K. Well, it's actually not that great—about 6.5 percent a year, less whatever it costs to restore them.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Who cares about the money, really? Imagine the time capsule that these airplanes may represent. What a thrill to look into a cockpit that's just as it was when it left the British Midlands factory in 1945. I hope we find out. And soon.

This is one of the coolest stories I have ever read about.