In 1944, southern Italy had been overrun by the Allies and newly captured airfields were quickly put to use as bases for the US Air Force. A little known fact is that Poland’s Air Force also operated out of such bases. Flying out of Brindisi, Polish B24s flew long and dangerous missions to drop supplies for those fighting the Germans during the Polish uprising. Operations reports describe at least two Polish aircraft that went down into the sea on the approaches to the Brindisi airfield with most crew members and aircraft never being located.
This year, two students from Harvey Mudd College's Lab for Autonomous and Intelligent Robotics (LAIR) joined a multinational team on an expedition, led by the University of Warsaw, to search for and locate these missing bombers. Through its ongoing collaboration with the University of Malta, Eric Contee and Russell Bingham travelled to Italy with the LAIR’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle and together with Professor Timmy Gambin formed the core element of the team tasked with mapping the seabed and identify the planes or their fragmented remains. The team designed search patterns for the robot - patterns that enable the systematic search of a given area using the AUV’s side scan sonar. Besides running the sonar missions, Eric, Russell and Timmy processed and analyzed the data so as to prepare target lists that will subsequently be verified by divers. Over six square km were covered and a number of interesting targets identified.
The project was made possible with the help of the Shipwreck Expeditions Association, Polish Air Force Historical Foundation, University of Warsaw Museum, Institute of Archeology of the University of Warszaw and Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity.
This project stems from a 10-year collaboration between Prof. Timmy Gambin from the Department of Classics & Archaeology, University of Malta and Prof. Christopher Clark who directs HMC's LAIR. For more information about their collaborative research please visit the following website.