tulsaboy wrote:
The short answer to your question is "yes." But as James said, it is not that simple- variables like how shallow or deep, duration of immersion, relative salinity of the water (fresh water has salt too, just not as much as the ocean- and places like the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea are obvious examples of really, really high salinity), how warm or cold the water is, etc., along with the quality of the original materials used play huge roles in how much the airframe will have degraded and what preservation techniques are needed. Take a look at the difference between some of the shallow saltwater wrecks in the Pacific and the deeper, colder saltwater wrecks near Norway and Sweeden- generally deeper and colder, though not absolutely perfect, are much better than shallow and warm. Also consider the artifacts recovered from the Titanic- over 2.5 miles deep, really cold, under huge pressure for almost a century- yet paper, leather, cotton fabric, etc. are being recovered and preserved using carefully designed conservation techniques. I am not a scientist, but from what I have read about several similar efforts one of the keys to conserving and preserving artifacts recovered from saltwater environments is a series of freshwater baths to halt the degredation, slowly allow the salt to leech out of the artifact, while also keeping the object damp. If you just set some of this stuff out to dry, you will within hours have nothing left.
Hope that answers some of your questions, at least in a generic way. There are some really great, really in-depth resources available on the net if you want to read up on the science behind such recoveries. From what I can tell, the prime wet environment for a WWII airframe is what we have found in Lake Michigan- really deep, really dark, and really cold fresh water with minimal wave action.
kevin
When I was a kid, a C150 went down just off the beach in Goleta. They recovered and dismantled it, then put the parts in my folks swimming pool. Sadly, even after a short immersion in salt water, soaking in the pool did not save the airframe. Made a great story for the other kids at school though.
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