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Salvage Wellington Bomber

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 3:00 am
by prestondocks
Hi, a freind of mine is looking at the feasability of salvaging a Wellington bomber from 109 meters of water. Could anyone provide links to resources which may help in planning the logistics and technical requirements of an operation like this.

Thanks
Simon

Re: Salvage Wellington Bomber

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:43 pm
by Timerover51
prestondocks wrote:Hi, a freind of mine is looking at the feasability of salvaging a Wellington bomber from 109 meters of water. Could anyone provide links to resources which may help in planning the logistics and technical requirements of an operation like this.

Thanks
Simon
Here is a link to a website giving some information on the recovery of aircraft from Lake Michigan in the US. The aircraft were located in water depths of up to 200 feet for recovery, but remember that this was cold fresh water. You did not indicate where the Wellington Bomber is located. All of the aircraft recovered from Lake Michigan were single-engine aircraft weighing less than 10,000, and in most cases, less than 8,000 pounds. The Wellington, being a twin-engine aircraft is going to be a bit harder to work with because of its size. The first thing to consider is what the state of the fuselage is and can it support being lifted. At that point, are you going to try for the entire aircraft in one lift, in which case you are going to need either a ship large enough to put the aircraft down on its deck, or a barge nearby to put the aircraft on.

If the aircraft is in reasonably good shape, you could try an initial lift using air balloons, but you would need to be carefully about overstressing the plane's structure. Your biggest problem is that 109 meters is really pushing it for divers, so anyone going down is going to need specialized mixtures and equipment. You could try attaching lifting cables for a crane lift or lifting balloons with an ROV, but an ROV and operator to do that is going to run you a minimum of $2,000 per day. I am looking at a ship that could handle the crane lift, and provide more than enough room for divers or ROV work, but I would have to charge about $10,000 a day for a charter, not counting the cost of getting to you.

Overall, as a first approximation, your friend needs to be thinking of about $500,000 for a starter, or recruiting a lot of volunteer divers that can go deep enough to do most of the work. That should bring it down to say $250,000 to $300,000.

Re: Salvage Wellington Bomber

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 5:24 am
by prestondocks
Thanks for the response, I have passed the information you provided on, but the link you mentioned was missing could you resend.

Thanks
Simon

Re: Salvage Wellington Bomber

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 2:10 pm
by Timerover51
prestondocks wrote:Thanks for the response, I have passed the information you provided on, but the link you mentioned was missing could you resend.

Thanks
Simon
Here is another link giving some information.

http://palinyoubetcha2012.com/wordpress/?p=635