China Warbirds?

[John Dupre]

I don't know if this has been discussed before. What would be the prospects of discovering warbirds in China? It is a pretty vast country so there are bound to be relatively undisturbed wreck sites. Has anyone looked? I know about the various museums and apparently some of those aircraft could be bought but the prices are too high. I remember reading about an AVG crash site that was supposed to be recovered, and the occasional Hump route crash site, but that is about it.

[bdk]

It is also very populated. Anything readily accessable will have been recycled long ago. Maybe some possibilities in lakes, but where do you get the information from? I don't think there are many anoraks in China. once you find it, I'm sure it will be quite tedious to get permission to recover.

[n5151ts]

...all you need is big bags of cash for the bribes necessary to pay off the corrupt commie officials. anything and i do mean ANYTHING is possible in china with the right bribes placed in the correct hands.

[tom d. friedman]

there are myriads of downed warbirds in the hump / himalayan mountains region, but the location is so rugged that it actually makes any recovery to cost prohibitive, not to mention that due to the remoteness most crash sites whether enemy or allied probably contain human remains, so they should be left undisturbed.

[B-29 Super Fort]

there are myriads of downed warbirds in the hump / himalayan mountains region, but the location is so rugged that it actually makes any recovery to cost prohibitive, not to mention that due to the remoteness most crash sites whether enemy or allied probably contain human remains, so they should be left undisturbed.

Agreed. There are a fair number of B-29s that crashed in the Hump re-supply missions, but as Tom said, the remote location and recovery cost make it most likely cost prohibitive.

[Steve Nelson]

Even if the aircraft could be recovered, going down in that kind of rugged terrain wouldn't leave much more that twisted wreckage..probably not enough viable parts for a restoration (other than a dataplate reproduction.)

I agree about them being gravesites. Unless the remains can be recovered and returned home for burial, I'd suggest leaving them and their aircraft where they fell.

SN

[tom d. friedman]

unfortunately most are probably gravesite crashes, those brave hump crews didn't just belly in up their, as their isn't any flat ground. & i'd bet if they were lucky enough to survive a crash or bail out, the chances of walking out were very very very slim.

[bdk]

...all you need is big bags of cash for the bribes necessary to pay off the corrupt commie officials. anything and i do mean ANYTHING is possible in china with the right bribes placed in the correct hands.

Pay off who and for what? I suggest the problem is one of information on the location of wrecks. Do you know of anyone that has tried to recover and export a wreck? Do tell!

What have you exported from China?