team arrives in Myanmar to start dig for WWII fighter planes

[cantom]

Ground penetrating radar? That could at least show them where to dig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar

 

[tommyinbc]

Ground penetrating radar? That could at least show them where to dig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar

Seems that they released images to the media some months ago using ground penetrating radar.....I have visions of M. Cundall (picture a mad professor) over the next 10 years being a solitary figure, with spade in hand, digging 000's holes throughout Rangoon whilst the locals walk passed shaking their heads..

 

[cantom]

Don Quixote...he'll be crushed when nothing shows up.

 

[Defendertech]

Ground penetrating radar? That could at least show them where to dig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar

Ground penetrating radar is ineffective at that depth unless the soil is homogenous and dry. Seismic or an EM survey would be more effective.

 

[JohnnySeven]

More info: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/21/169621797/in-myanmar-a-hunt-for-fabled-cache-of-buried-wwii-spitfires

Another annoyance to archeology is the pesky little civil war that's going on in Myanmar at the moment. Im sure Spitfires aren't very high on the rebel or government agendas.

 

[RRCo.]

An initial dig in Myitkyina located one crate, which the team bored a hole in and used a remote camera to peer into. They found the crate full of water, with oil on the surface, which Cundall suggests was used to prevent corrosion. The team will have to pump the water out before exhuming the crate.

Sad truth is that a buried container becomes a drainage sump, only no one's pumping it out, in other words any underground cavity will fill up to the level of groundwater unless absolutely water tight. These planes will have been sitting in wet soil for 68 years. There won't be much left IMO. In a few cases the packing case may have remained water tight, but 30 feet under ground in saturated soil is similar to being 30 feet under water: there is water pressure everywhere trying to find a way in. These crates were only built to keep the planes intact while they were shipped and stored for a few months.

Either Mr. Cundall doesn't understand this or he knows something about their packing that we don't.

 

[cantom]

Methinks the poor chap is in for a big disappointment, one way or the other.

 

[flying pig]

Depends on a lot of things I bet. I read a while ago about vehicles that were lost on the Alaska highway in Muncho lake being pulled out 60years later and even their occupants looked like the day the went in

 

[Stray03]

Would love to know how these people get to be part of the group going to look. That would be a dream job.