Squadron of Lost WWII Spitfires To Be Exhumed In Burma

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt that sounds like a good Neal Stephenson plot point: "Like a treasure chest stuffed with priceless booty, as many as 20 World War II-era Spitfire planes are perfectly preserved, buried in crates beneath Burma — and after 67 years underground, they're set to be uncovered. The planes were shipped in standard fashion in 1945 from their manufacturer in England to the Far East country: waxed, wrapped in greased paper and tarred to protect against the elements. They were then buried in the crates they were shipped in, rather than let them fall into enemy hands, said David Cundall, an aviation enthusiast who has spent 15 years and about $200,000 in his efforts to reveal the lost planes."

Comments

Re:Great idea for other old military hardware!

[JockTroll]

Part of the usefulness of a weapon is its ability to do its job on command, and not randomly. Ordnance from a century ago can still go BOOM, but it won't go BOOM when it's needed. Detonators in particular become highly unstable, and that's why a good lot of ordnance (landmines, shells) has removable detonators (other than changing the fuse setting). Seriously, how retarded are you? Did your parents have any offspring that survived?