This is quite the story... Spitfire AA810 flown by Flt. Alastair 'Sandy' Gunn has been recovered piece by piece in Norway. The aircraft was on a mission to photograph the warship Tirpitz hiding in a fjord. The pilot was shot down, captured by the Germans, interred, and then participated in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III. Unfortunately upon his recapture he was one of the airmen executed by the Gestapo for the escape attempt.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spitfire-norway-mountain-great-escape-pilot-found-second-world-war-nazi-raf-espionage-alastair-gunn-a8646841.html

 

The photos and drawing are from the article.

 

Here are the remains of the aircraft, in pieces.

 

The article states, rather optimistically that the goal is to restore the aircraft to flying condition.

 

Normally for a recovered aircraft, that requires the air frame to be somewhat intact. But perhaps the restoration artists have enough to work with.

 

Note the five piles of additional pieces in the upper left of the aircraft layout.

Really interesting article Gil. That’s going to take some real work to “restore” that bird.

Terry

Excellent post on a very interesting aircraft recovery. Thanks for posting. Hope we in the U.S. get to see the documentary. Bob

I am a bit confused. The article says the plane is mostly intact, but that photo looks anything but intact.

Uh, they're going to need duct tape and superglue in bulk

I am a bit confused. The article says the plane is mostly intact, but that photo looks anything but intact.

 

I think the use of the word "intact" can only be taken to mean they found most of the pieces in one place.

 

Like I said earlier, restoring this to "flying" condition seems unlikely.