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IAF restores Spitfire dug up from Ambala

Posted by Jagan on Mon Aug 04, 2003 03:19:24 AM

remember the flurry of posts i made on news reports digging up a spitfire at ambala?

Here is a followup as to what happened to it:
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IAF restores vintage Spitfire
Vishal Thapar
(Ambala, August 1)
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) has recovered a vintage Spitfire aircraft buried in a river bed near Mullana village of Ambala.
The British-made Spitfire symbolised airborne dogfights during World War-II. The most famous aircraft of its class, it enabled the successful defence of Britain in 1941. It's now a prized museum piece.

A villager discovered the wreckage of the Royal Indian Air Force Spitfire in January. It has since been removed and reconstructed by the IAF.

"Scrutiny of records on the basis of the identification number ? MV 459 ? found on the wreckage revealed that this fighter aircraft belly-landed in the dry river bed on May 23, 1947," a senior IAF officer posted at the Ambala base said. The pilot, Pilot Officer A.D. Cruz, survived the crash, records show.

The plane, which arrived at Bombay on December 8, 1944, was part of the No. 8 RF unit operating under the South East Asia Air Command of the Royal Indian Air Force.

Wing Commander P.K. Srivastava, an aircraft repair and salvage expert who supervised the reconstruction, said the reference point for the complex effort was the Spitfire in the IAF's Palam Museum.

"Our work was guided by photographs, measurements of dimensions and curvatures obtained from the Palam exhibit," he said.

A team under the Wing Commander rebuilt a 31-foot fuselage, as in the original, around the five-foot remnant recovered from the river bed. The cockpit, fuselage and tail portions were found lying scattered in the bed.

The reconstruction took four months. "The most difficult part involved rebuilding the front fuselage, cockpit canopy and the propeller," Wing Commander Srivastava said.

Defence Minister George Fernandes saw the Spitfire on Friday and commended the reconstruction effort.

Hindustan Times Report

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