There is no evidence more clearer than this to confirm that the Spitfire was the same one that we speculated last week. MV-459 is clearly shown on the Oil Cooler covers that came up in the dig.

When the first reports of the Spitfire recovery came up, we speculated that the aircraft's identity was MV-459 based on the information published in the book 'Spitfire International' from Air Britain. We never thought that the educated guess would turn out to be right on the dot!

'MV-459' was exactly what was found stencilled on one of the covers, assumed to be from the Oil Cooler/Air Scoops. WarbirdsofIndia was able to procure several photographs of the aircraft in its current state at Ambala. The photographs revealed some good news and some bad news.

First , the bad news. From the photographs it looks like that there is no fully intact Spitfire (or even pieces that can be made into an intact aircraft). However we should say that the photographs we recieved do not tell the entire story and that there could be other sections that are not visible in them.

The good news is that there is a substantial portion of the original remains that could form the basis of a ground up restoration of the types carried out in the UK. Airworthy Spitfires have been built up from remains that were in worse conditions than this and of lesser percentage of completeness. So there is hope in the world of an intact MV-459 surfacing one of these days

The recovery in the mud and sand made it difficult to remove the aircraft in one piece. However incredibly the entire wingspan and cockpit structure was removed intact as can be seen in these photographs. The recovery team from 1947 had removed such items like Guns, instruments and some engine parts.

The largest intact section was the center fuselage with Cockpit section and the complete Wingspan. The port side wing seemed to have been damaged, but the starboard wing is in perfect condition. The cannon, instruments and parts of the engine seemed to have been removed by the Original Crash investigation party way back in 1947.

	It appears that the engine was partly opened up by the crash investigation team in 47 and a few parts taken for study. The partial remains of the Merlin can be seen in this photograph.
Another photograph showing the piece of wreckage from which the serial number MV-459 was found out.

The engine reveals that certain sections have been removed with the connecting rods sticking out of the engine case. The last piece of the identifiable wreckage is the tail section which has the elevators intact as well as large parts of the fin. The tail section does have some of the original paint scheme from 1947 still showing up.

The tail fuselage of the Spitfire had to be seperated and removed from the fuselage. These ictures show that remnants of the paint can be viewed on the tail surfaces even after 55 years!

Other bits and pieces include what is believed to be the engine's supercharger. The photographs appear to have an identification dataplate on it.  The Cockpit photographs reveal that the instruments have been stripped by the salvage party. The only identifiable components are the rudder pedals and the Compass mount.

	Believed to be the Supercharger, this piece of wreckage still carries the Identification Plate.
The inside of the cockpit shows the bare shell without instruments. The Rudder pedals and the Compass mount stand out conspicuously.

What is the current Status?

MV-459 is currently in Air Force Station Ambala. Though at present a complete restoration looks beyond the means of any local restoration body or the Indian Air Force, it is solace to know that the remains of the aircraft will be preserved for some time and would in most probability given up for interested parties for restoration purposes.

Currently only organisations in the West and in Australia have the capability of restoring such pieces of wreckage into immaculate airworthy aircraft. In the past restoration companies have turned out complete aircraft from relics that were barely recognisable as a Spitfire and these remains should pose no problem for organisations.

Though initially we had thought that the pilot of the aircraft was Flt Lt Ulrich D'Cruz, we have recieved communication from the D'Cruz family that it may not have been him. So as far as the identity of the pilot is concerned we are currently back to square one!

Updated Aug 2003:

It was much to our surprise and joy to hear that the above relics have been put together and restored to represent a complete Spitfire by the Ambala Air Force Station team. Read about it here