Any Salvagable Wreck's Left In The UK's Lake's?

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14 years 6 months

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Hi chaps,
During my visit to Berlin a few days ago I saw some very well preserved aircraft recovered from lakes.
Saw a documentary on Loch Ness yesterday and the recent Loch Doon thread make me think (again) if there are any salvagable substantial aircraft wrecks
in UK (inland) waters. IIRC apart from Wellington R for Robert there was talk about a Catalina down there too. In FlyPast years ago an article was published
about a ditched Defiant. The missing second Fritton lake P-47, There must still still be some to be found.
Any ideas?
Cees

Original post

Member for

10 years 7 months

Posts: 188

There may (or may not) be a float-equipped Spitfire somewhere in the Lake District.

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24 years 2 months

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Cees,

Both Fritton Lake P47's are still in there somewhere - they only recovered a wing as I recall.

Be nice to rescue those - they are only a few minutes drive from me.

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16 years 2 months

Posts: 1,911

I'm sure we've had this conversation before, in which case I will probably have mentioned this crash:-

http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/peakdistrict/peakdistrictlk502.htm

I was told that pieces of the Stirling ended up in Rudyard Lake. Whether this was as a result of the crash or its subsequent salvage was not explained. I doubt there are any substantial parts anyway, although when we visited the site, some aeroplane skinning was to be seen as fence repairs, etc, which suggests that some parts remained onsite after the recovery?

I don't know much about the lake itself (e.g. how deep it is) and I expect a more knowledgable wreck investigator will be along to rebut the story.

Someone will now post a link to Top Gear and an amphibious Triumph Herald.

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11 years 2 months

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Steve, Didn't you tell us some time ago that it was a Sunderland?

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18 years 4 months

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No proof of a Catalina in loch Ness which is local to me, a Hurricane was recovered from another loch in the Great Glen.Rumours of a Fleet Air Arm aircraft in an unnamed Loch north of inverness. RAF Coltishall sub aqua club did the Fritton lake P47 recovery ,i knew the chief diver and feel that they lifted all that was found.

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11 years 1 month

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There was Beaufort ( or Blenheim) just off the east shore of Lough Neagh which was fairly intact until late 1975 when ,unfortunately, it was "bombed" by the Army.

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13 years 2 months

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There was an Oxford believed to be in a Scottish Loch "not sure if this has been recovered", some Wellington bits are believed to be in a Lake in the Lake district "fairly close to shore".

There are other rumours of aircraft remaining in fresh water, inc - a Battle in a reservoir, a Spitfire in a Loch "not Mentieth", and a Blenheim MK 1 in a river.

The Defiant was/is in Scotland, but not in fresh water.

I believe the Hurricane that was recovered in Scotland, was in Loch Oich.

IIRC 1 P47 went into Fritton lake, the other crashed on land.

Plenty of aircraft crashed into Lakes & rivers here in the UK, but most are believed to have been recovered at the time "mores the pity".

Bob T.

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11 years 10 months

Posts: 7

Beaufort in Reservoir?

Bristol Beaufort, (X8938 of the Torpedo Training Unit), reportedly crashed in Busbie Muir Reservoir, 3 miles NE of Ardrossan, Ayrshire on 22/06/41? Not aware of any recovery, but relatively recent requests to investigate by sub-aqua teams seem to have been refused on grounds that disturbance would contaminate water supply and/or fish stocks? May also be a war grave, but don't think listed as such?

Cold, dark, peaty water.....

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20 years 3 months

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Loch Foyle Corsair

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11 years 3 months

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Budworth Mere Cheshire Barracuda(s). There is a thread on this somewhere. Highly doubtful

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10 years 5 months

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I understand that a Manchester fuselage is believed to have been left in a Lincolnshire gravel pit, possibly as late as during the Fifties .....

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14 years 6 months

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That one was taken away for scrap in the fifties unfortunately. Pics in book by Robert Kirby.
Cees

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17 years 10 months

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HE111 in a reservoir near Tottenham/Lea Valley or is it a myth?

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14 years 5 months

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Wellington rumoured in a large pond in Randwick, near Stroud.

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17 years 11 months

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Lancaster in Whixhall Moss ... or is it the mere at Ellesmere?!

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15 years 3 months

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There is a number of PBY Catalina's ex lend lease sunk in the middle of Lower Lough Erne , Northern Ireland , scuttled after hostilities in 60 metres of water . Property of the USofA .

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12 years 11 months

Posts: 69

Loch ness / great glen - i understand it was a wartime nav route and ive read in history books of a reference to a ditching and bail out/running out of fuel of a whitley and a hudson if i remember correct - id be surprised if the Wellington was the only aircraft in the whole of the great glen - must be others given its sheer size

is there some sonar survey data somebody can revisit?

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14 years 10 months

Posts: 35

The Blenheim in the Severn is about 1 mile off Lydney pier. Serial L1471, it surfaces from the sand occasionally. I have a 1975 picture of it, complete, but the tail had been pulled off during a recovery attempt. I doubt whether there will be much left 40 years on.

The Randwick Wellington is W5705, crashed 29th Jan 1943. The pond it went into (vertically I think) was quite small, and had been filled in for many years when I last visited the farm on business in the mid 1970's.

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10 years 7 months

Posts: 2,748

Loch ness / great glen - i understand it was a wartime nav route and ive read in history books of a reference to a ditching and bail out/running out of fuel of a whitley and a hudson if i remember correct - id be surprised if the Wellington was the only aircraft in the whole of the great glen - must be others given its sheer size

is there some sonar survey data somebody can revisit?

If anything else was there then surely the numerous surveys would have turned up a monster, if there was one to find, let alone more aviation wrecks.

Or not?