History OT- P40 Warhawk found in desert

If this has already been posted, sorry, but I know a lot of us share a kinship with WWII aircraft as well as hot rods and customs, and this kind of stuff...well...is just plain cool...

70 years and it's like it crashed yesterday! I only hope the Brits can get it out of there before it gets stripped to nothing.

details and more picts here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-Dennis-Copping-discovered-Sahara-desert.html

 

Thanks for that linK, Ron. Really good pictures there.

I quess that's a Merlin in there?


Hijack allert...Taken the T out for a ride, 66* and sunny.

Frank

 

Pretty sure the P40s had Allison V12s in them.

 

Another more famous desert plane...Lady Be Good, lost to a repciprocal compass error and also a fairly intact wreck:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft)

There is lots more information around on this one.

 

Been posted already but somehow this story has started circling the web again. Plane was actually found several years ago according to one story i read.

 

Old find, but was on the msn home page today?? Why does this keep popping up? Cool though....

 

Yeah, came up on the UK Daily Mail yesterday as well. Must be a slow news week?

 

New to me... T-Man-Got links to the old story? If it was a couple years ago, it would be interesting to find out if it was saved...

 

That one does have an Allison V-1710, but P-40F/P-40L had Packard Merlins.

My Father-in-Law worked on Merlin powered P-40's in that same desert.

 

Just saw this on the BBC news this evening, seems that the RAF are in talks with the Egyptian govt to recover the aircraft. Apparently it appears the pilot (RAF) survived the landing, holed up for a few days using his chute as a shelter, then they reckon he walked off into the desert and was lost...I guess his choices were pretty limited at that point...

 

I believe the original pictures were from a Pole that was in oil exploration and shot in 03. It popped up here the other day as well as other news sites in the last few days.

 

Yeah, the story says a Polish oil worker found the wreckage...doesn't say when though...Everything I can find has it reported around April of this year...Either way, I hope they were able to retrieve it.

 

Cant view that article at work (ck-blocked) but could check out the wiki of the lady be good. Cant believe how may outs the crew of that plane had and by chance made all the wrong decisions. Not baggin on them by any means, just a shit ordeal. I also cant believe that the plane sat in the desert for 15 yrs and not a single soul came across it. Can you imagine how much havoc a bunch of nomads could of caused running into town with 50cals strapped to their camels?

 

This is an old story, but interesting. P-40's aren't very rare.
Go to You Tube for video.
Check out other WW2 craft that are turning up, notably a FW-190 found in Russia!

 

Yeah, I find 'em on Craigslist all the time.

 

Hahaha! Sorry, that was funny.

Love these old lost-n-found warbird stories.

 

I believe it resurfaced in the UK Daily Mail again today because they now think they know the identity of the pilot. I think they plan to attempt a search for his remains. One article I read said he should be within 20 miles of the wreck but that is still a whole lot of desert to search.

 

That's how my grandfather and his business partner found theirs and then spent years restoring it.

 

Cool story,hope the plane gets the resto that it deserves.

 

Kirk, what are the details on your father's find and restoration?

 

Thanks for taking the trouble, Ron.
As you said, many of us are interested in WW11 machinery.
It would be good , if they could locate the pilots remains, to possibly comfort any surviving relatives.

 

Grandfather. It's been probably 20 years, but if I remember right they hired a guy who searches for downed and abandoned military planes. I think theirs was found in Arizona.

It took them about 10 years to finish it and then they flew it in air shows. I haven't talked with him in 10 years and he jet died last year. We weren't very close.

 

Scored a ride in one a couple years ago,unf'nbelievable.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=415808

 

The P-40 is my favorite WW II fighter. I know it's overshadowed by the P-51 and various others but to me it's the blue collar hard working airplane that many pilots did remarkable things in and was usually the undergog in every combat theater they were operated.

 

From Pearl Harbor all the way to VJ-Day!

Ramblur thats awesome, you lucky dog.

 

Why can't I find something like that?

 

Old warbirds are simply beautiful works of flying art. Thanks for sharing!

Hope that the vultures dont pick the plane clean before they get it removed!

 

When I lived in Alaska, a friend and I rode up to the crashed B-29 by Wasilla a couple times. It was an all day track but well worth it. That was a long time ago and not many people had been to it then. I suppose it's pretty picked over now.

 

I've seen this before, both as someone studying history in college and as a vet this is just freaking cool.

 

We have a China Clipper that crashed during WW2 a few miles from my house here.

It was coming in from Hawaii to SF Bay and that was fogged in so it realined for Clear Lake and did see the mountain range .... all bodies recovered and monument on the site.