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Swedish Recovery expedition

Posted by Mikael Olrog on Fri Jul 04, 2003 02:32:42 AM

A Swedish Air Force C-47 shot down by Soviet Union in 1952 over the Baltic see has been discovered after a lengthy search. Soviet Union didn?t admit to shooting down the aircraft until 1991. The crew was lost, only a dinghy was recovered. The aircraft was on top secret signals reconnaissance with the latest American equipment given to Sweden by the English. The English had been given only two sets of the equipment, one which was passed on the Sweden. Obviously the English (and probably US) did get information in return. As you can understand this information have raised a discussion about Swedish neutrality which is quite interesting to follow.

It is quite possible that a recovery is being planned since the Air Force has always recovered their lost aircraft. What is interesting for this forum is that a new way of recovery has been discussed in the press. A different way of recovering the aircraft is discussed so that not the failure of the Fw 200 Condor recovery is repeated. The method would mean that an ROV would be used to cover/wrap the wreck with a plastic cloth (or similar) and then a liquid is poured inside at a temperature of -50C. The wreck can then be raised as a block of ice to the surface, without disintegrating.

The Swedish Air Force Museum has expressed interest in preserving the wreck after recovery and examination.

Have this way of recovering aircraft been used before?

May be this would be a good way to recover some of the larger aircraft that lie around in different lakes (BV 222, He 177 etc ? yeah, yeah let a man have a dream OK? :-)

I?ll keep you updated!
/Mikael

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