The team hoping to recover 20 'lost' Spitfire planes aim to start digging in Southeast Asia ahead of the summer monsoons. The aircraft were still boxed in their travel crates when they were buried deep underground at the end of World War Two. It has taken 15 years to locate them in Burma, now Myanmar, but during Prime Minister David Cameron's visit last week an agreement was reached to begin a joint heritage project to retrieve the fighter planes. Spitfire enthusiast Steve Boultbee Brooks, one of those leading the project, told Sky News: "We're not sure what we are going to find, but hopefully we'll bring some planes back. "They are a long way down we think - six or seven metres. "So it is going to be a massive dig and we have to work with the seasons as well." The notorious rainy season in the region begins in June. "It is going to be a very large hole, we would like to get in before the monsoon," he said. The mammoth logistical operation is now being thoroughly planned out. Mr Boultbee Brooks added: "We will create a mine, an opencast system and get in there and very gently go step by step. "It has got adventure written all over it, we can't wait." The lost aircraft have sparked such interest because there are currently only 35 Spitfires still flying in the world. Paul Beaver, an aviation historian who is part of the team, told Sky News: "Our vision is grand - heritage in Britain and Myanmar linked together for the benefit of both nations. "That's something worth taking our coats off and grabbing a spade with which to dig." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/spitfire-search-start-monsoons-195235903.html This is going to save the Royal Airforce a packet of money as they will not have to buy new planes now that they have found 20 brand new ones boxed up that they buried in Burma 6 decades ago. I cannot wait to them in a fly by.We might have to bung a few to the Burmese airforce as technically they belong to them.
