Author Topic: P47D recovery from Austrian lake (Read 1545 times)

frank3 · « **Reply #15 on:** June 15, 2005, 03:33:02 PM »

Was he glad he didn't have to face those laughing pow's for too long

Ecliptik · « **Reply #16 on:** June 16, 2005, 12:13:39 AM »

Quote

Turns out the loss was due to the pilot hitting his prop on the water while putting on a show for a nearby POW camp. He ende up ditching it and ending up in the camp for a few hours before the war ended.

Not a bad time to get taken prisoner. Hang out with the POW boys for an afternoon and then hitch a ride back to base, lol.

bob149 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 16, 2005, 06:32:12 AM »

but the embarrasment .....hehe wonder what his boss said ?

Wilbus · « **Reply #18 on:** June 16, 2005, 02:41:51 PM »

Sweet water preserves planes very nicely. Same thing in the Baltic Sea (not sweet water but not far from it). One of the best places to find very very old and well preserved wreckages. Wounder how many well preserved WW2 planes there might be...

Furious · « **Reply #19 on:** June 16, 2005, 03:32:37 PM »

They are giving it back, right?

Guppy35 · « **Reply #20 on:** June 16, 2005, 04:06:47 PM »

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Originally posted by Furious
They are giving it back, right?

I've heard a couple different museums pointed out as possible destinations. D-Day Museum in New Orleans for one.

It does appear it's coming back to the states anyway.

Dan/CorkyJr

gripen · « **Reply #21 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:04:08 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wilbus
Sweet water preserves planes very nicely. Same thing in the Baltic Sea (not sweet water but not far from it). One of the best places to find very very old and well preserved wreckages. Wounder how many well preserved WW2 planes there might be...

It's oxygen (O) which destroys planes in water. There is not much oxygen in the bottom of Baltic sea, therefore wreckages tend to be in good condition there. And it's same in sweet water lakes which have mud in the bottom. In the case of this P-47, the plane seem to had been upside down in mud and therefore upper part of the fuselage is in good condition while the bottom is worse. Another well known case where a plane survived well in the mud is BW-372.

gripen

Wilbus · « **Reply #22 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:37:06 AM »

Uhmmm, interesting.

However, salt does hurry up corrosion aswell I'm quite sure, dip a piece of metal in salt water and another one in sweet water and put them both on land to dry and the one in salt water will rust faster.

Atleast that is the case with my Leatherman multitool, np with sweet water but as soon as I got some salt water on it I got surface rust. Same thing happaned to my friends leatherman multitool.

gripen · « **Reply #23 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:51:02 AM »

Well, rusting is a chemical reaction between the material and oxygen so if there is no oxygen, there is no rusting regardless type of water.

gripen

straffo · « **Reply #24 on:** June 17, 2005, 03:53:02 AM »

If I remeber correctly in the baltic there is less salt than in some other sea.

10g/l in the baltic sea
about 35 g/l in the mediterranee

gripen · « **Reply #25 on:** June 17, 2005, 04:07:55 AM »

Straffo,
True but it's not the reason why there is less rusting in the wreckages lying in the deep parts of the Baltic sea. In the deeper areas of the Baltic sea there is very little change of water (streams or storms or what ever) between bottom and surface of the sea. Therefore there is very little oxygen and therefore also most of deeper parts of the Baltic sea are practically dead areas (below surface layers where wind and storms change water).

gripen

2bighorn · « **Reply #26 on:** June 17, 2005, 11:55:23 AM »

Why is there a difference between fresh and salt water (in terms of corrosion)? Because the lower conductivity of fresh water reduces the amount of galvanic corrosion.

Pooface · « **Reply #27 on:** June 17, 2005, 01:22:54 PM »

its because salt water is reasonably alkaline, which is causing chemical erosion rather than oxidation (rusting)

gripen · « **Reply #28 on:** June 17, 2005, 05:41:12 PM »

Hm... Just look at the pictures. The areas which had been in open water (like tail) are quite rusted while the areas which had been covered with mud are pretty good. Organic material in the mud has used the oxygen and therefore the condition is quite good. If a plane is inside water about 60 years, it does not matter if the water is salty or not, it will rust the metal (alumnium or what ever).

gripen

Tails · « **Reply #29 on:** June 17, 2005, 08:24:24 PM »

Thankfully for warbird scavengers, aluminum corrodes a little differently that iron alloys (IE Steel). Iron alloys tend to pit when they rust, causing holes to form, or resulting in exfoliation (that patch of metal on your mower that looks solid till you touch it, then your finger pokes through some tough as paper, flakey metal). Aluminum tends to corrode more at the surface, then works its way inward almost uniform (barring any imperfections in the metal).

Aluminum corrosion also protects the metal under it, while iron corrosion tends to help destroy it. Doesn't seem to work as well protecting things in water than it does in air, but I guess every bit helps!