ARmy Rumour SErvice

**joey_deacons_lad** · 12-05-2012, 02:31

Not sure if this should be put here or in the Aviation forum but the Mail has an article on a P-40 that crash landed in Egypt and is was amazingly well preserved. Does anyone have any idea how this happened or how many other Planes might be lying out there
Crashed plane of Second World War pilot Dennis Copping discovered in the Sahara desert | Mail Online

**eodmatt** · 12-05-2012, 05:03

Dunno about that one, but I do know that there is a squadrons worth of Spitfires buried in full preservation in Libya.

**DavidBOC** · 12-05-2012, 05:23

Interesting article. I saw something bout this in a US paper but less detail and only one small picture. Makes you think about the pilot, survives the crash but is in the middle of nowhere.

**cloudbuster** · 12-05-2012, 05:27

Covered in depth at;

P-40 from Sahara - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

and;

P-40 found in the Sahara Desert - PPRuNe Forums

**Scorcher68** · 12-05-2012, 07:57

Originally Posted by DavidBOC

Interesting article. I saw something bout this in a US paper but less detail and only one small picture. Makes you think about the pilot, survives the crash but is in the middle of nowhere.

Yes a slow,lingering death which does not bear thinking about.

**Goldbricker** · 12-05-2012, 08:24

Originally Posted by joey_deacons_lad

Not sure if this should be put here or in the Aviation forum but the Mail has an article on a P-40 that crash landed in Egypt and is was amazingly well preserved. Does anyone have any idea how this happened or how many other Planes might be lying out there
Crashed plane of Second World War pilot Dennis Copping discovered in the Sahara desert | Mail Online

I dont know about Near perfect. the prop was ripped from the engine while switched on, it looks like the landing gear legs were down and ripped out going by the damage to the front fairings and the Tail wheel was down

**ches** · 15-05-2012, 15:52

Up until the 70's i think there was a B24 Lib that belly landed on its own in the desert. It used to be seen by the pilots of the planes used to fly mining supplies out to the compounds when they were springing up at the time. IIRC the crew bailed out thinking they were over the Med on return from a mission to Italy. Not sure how many survived. There was a detailed model diorama made of the crash site which appeared in Mil Modelling i think in the late 90's or early 00's. It has some good background gen in the article.

Also don't forget the B17 & P38's that came down almost intact on the Greenland glacier trying the fly the northern air bridge to UK in WW2. They were still visible to trans-atlantic airliners into the 60's. There was an excellent prog on the recovery of the a/c back in the 90's. They managed to recover enough parts after using a home made steam based 'drill' to make a P38, she now flys in US called Glacier Girl IIRC. The B17 was pulverised into bits by the moving ice. Shame.

Also a fully intact B29 landed wheels down on a frozen lake somewhere in Greenland. Again an excellent prog was made for mainstream TV. A team went in during the weather windows over I think 3-4 years to repair her & make airworthy. They succeeeded only for the a/c to catch fire on its final taxt before take off to Thule airbase. Plane went up like tinder being ally, crew managed to escape.

**Goldbricker** · 15-05-2012, 16:07

"Lady be Good" None survived

"Lady Be Good" B-24 Bomber, Quartermaster Graves Registration Search and Recovery

**the_wolf** · 15-05-2012, 16:20

Im quite surprised that a lot of the posters on the aviation forums posted above are all too quick to cry that its a fake, model or photoshopped

**Ruckerwocman** · 15-05-2012, 16:40

Originally Posted by ches

Up until the 70's i think there was a B24 Lib that belly landed on its own in the desert. It used to be seen by the pilots of the planes used to fly mining supplies out to the compounds when they were springing up at the time. IIRC the crew bailed out thinking they were over the Med on return from a mission to Italy. Not sure how many survived. There was a detailed model diorama made of the crash site which appeared in Mil Modelling i think in the late 90's or early 00's. It has some good background gen in the article.

Also don't forget the B17 & P38's that came down almost intact on the Greenland glacier trying the fly the northern air bridge to UK in WW2. They were still visible to trans-atlantic airliners into the 60's. There was an excellent prog on the recovery of the a/c back in the 90's. They managed to recover enough parts after using a home made steam based 'drill' to make a P38, she now flys in US called Glacier Girl IIRC. The B17 was pulverised into bits by the moving ice. Shame.

Also a fully intact B29 landed wheels down on a frozen lake somewhere in Greenland. Again an excellent prog was made for mainstream TV. A team went in during the weather windows over I think 3-4 years to repair her & make airworthy. They succeeeded only for the a/c to catch fire on its final taxt before take off to Thule airbase. Plane went up like tinder being ally, crew managed to escape.

The B-29 that landed in Greenland was the Kee-Bird. NOVA made a programme about the attempted resurrection of the aircraft in 1994-5 by a private firm that was shown on Public TV in 1996. I guess the guys forgot to check for fuel leaks when they were doing their pre-flight inspections before flying to Thule as the ship caught fire and burned. I'll bet the leader of the expedition was kicking himself in the ass for that one.