Posted on 05/11/2012 9:07:30 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
It’s not quite the same as the opening sequence to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but it’s awfully close.
The Daily Mail reports that a Polish oil company worker, Jakub Perka, has discovered an “almost perfectly preserved” Kittyhawk P-40 that crash-landed in the Sahara Desert in 1942.
“Despite the crash impact, most of the aircraft’s cockpit instruments are intact,” according to the report.
Cool.
Never heard of such a plane. I assume it’s American? It could fly again.
I just saw one of these flying at the Chino Airshow last weekend. It looks a little sandblasted but will probably be back in the air in no time.
Goes to show there are still many treasures yet to be discovered that are in plain sight.
You never heard of the flying Tigers in Burma?
Looks like the pilot landed her as well as possible under the circummstances. Desert sand is one thing, big rocks are another.
Be neat if the pilot was still around to see her after 70 years. Not many of the WW2 folks still here.
Just realized I made a pun. Should have said plane sight.
Think Flying Tigers.
Someone must have stolen the fabric off the rudder and elevator to make a burka.
Yes, I heard of the Flying Tigers. Actually saw the John Wayne movie about the Flying Tigers, too. =)
I’ve never heard of that type of plane.
Curtis P-40 Warhawk. In British service and, depending on the model, was also known as the Kittyhawk or the Tomahawk.
I don't mean to be picky but the AVG used P40-B's and this appears to be a P40-D.
Wow, that really is in pretty good shape.
I was just giving a general reference to jog someones memory...model numbers aside.
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was an American aircraft manufacturer that went public in 1916 with Glenn Hammond Curtiss as president. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States. After Curtiss left the company, it became part of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was created on January 13, 1916 from the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York and Curtiss Motor Company of Bath, New York. In September 1920, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company underwent a financial reorganization and Glenn Curtiss cashed out his stock in the company for $32 million and retired to Florida. He continued as a director of the company but served only as an advisor on design. Clement M. Keys gained control of the company and it later became the nucleus of a large group of aviation companies.
Very much American!
What a great paint job, too!
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