Complete P-40 Found in the Sahara

This from an email I received,
The pictures are quite interesting if nothing else.
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"Shot down, or pilot became lost, sometime April, 1942. Aircraft found the last week of March, 2012, intact and complete.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114682566226043469349/Zdj_samolot?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKjxkt6rkNTFKg&feat=directlink#

It’s an early Kittyhawk Mk1, no doubt from 260 Sqn RAF…..the pilot’s fate is currently unknown.

Priceless artifact from WW2…."
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Here's another project for you Sparky.

 

Wow, it's amazing how clean all the surfaces look. But I guess they've effectively been sandblasted. Very cool.

 

Looks like it might be restorable even after 70 years outside.

 

I am amazed the gauges are still in it.
Those are the first things to go.

 

Just fantastic.

What do you think the guy in the first picture is holding?

 

That looks like silk to me, so I'm thinking it's a parachute.

Wow, I just looked through the whole gallery. I think it's amazing that everything seems to still be there. The gun boxes are even still loaded.

This must be a super remote spot for folks to not have carted off those loose bits for their materials, or as souvenirs.

 

Closed canopy and tail wheel down. My guess is he made it out.

 

Neat! It makes you wonder what other lost-to-time treasures are out there awaiting discovery.

CW

 

Only to die of exposure in the middle of nowhere.

 

OMG!!! That's just amazing! Is this how it was found? How did it go unseen all
these years? Or is it just such a bloody huge place that the odds were small?

Jedi

 

That would be my guess.

CW

 

Boy would I love to have that Kitty. Be up and flying in 2 years or less. Looks like about all is there except belly junk,spinner front and what the camel jox are carting off.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Someone just found some gold.

 

i can only imagine what waits under another shifting dune out there, amazing....we've come across 30-40's machines and equipment in the far north here, left abandoned and still sitting where parked....nothing as valuable as that though

 

I suppose those rear control surfaces were fabric?

 

All the control surfaces on the P-40 were fabric covered as was the P-39...and B-17, B-24. The P-51 rudder was fabric covered. The B-29's control surfaces were fabric covered but the P-47 had all metal throughout.

 

Yes

 

All we need is a CH47 to run out there and sling it.

 

Apparently, it's location is now known and it is already getting picked apart and being used for target practice. Sad really.

 

@?$&!

 

That's depressing.

"This is why we can't have nice things."

 

Underwear I'm guessing.. first thing to chuck after such a landing!

Least not in a jungle and pile of rust!

I hope it gets rescued pronto now known location.

 

Really? I heard it was already in the US, being restored... but that was just internet rumor, so I don't know how much stock to put in it.

 

Pete