This B-24 Liberator was discovered in the sixties in the desert...
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.
In US Army Air Force service its call a P40E “Warhawk”
In UK RAF service its called a Kittyhawk Mk1
But a lot of the public knows them (wrongly) as a “Tigershark” because of the Flying Tiger “Shark mouth” that always seem to get painted on them
The P-40 was a pre-war design that was not really very good, by WWII standards, but used by the flying Tigers in China and mostly in the Pacific war. They were under-armed. I see them as kind of a crossover between WWI and WWII aircraft.
They were the planes used by our heroes in the movie Pearl Harbor that they were able to use during the Japanese raid to shoot down some planes.
I’ve never heard of KittyHawk. Isn’t it a P-40 Thunderbolt?
This B-24 Liberator was discovered in the sixties in the desert...
Wow! A P40! Wonder what the story is on it?
—Be neat if the pilot was still around to see her after 70 years.—
Notice the canopy is still closed? I have a feeling nobody walked away from that one.
Ping
Two completely different airplanes by two different manufacturers. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (also known as Kittyhawk by the RAF and Tomahawk) was a development of their P-36 Hawk fighter. They took the Hawk and put an Allison V-1710 inline engine on it.
It wasn’t a bad aircraft, but it gained a poor reputation because it wasn’t as good a dogfighter at the Japanese Zeros it fought against in the early Pacific war. But, the Flying Tigers proved that it could be a very effective weapon if flown correctly...it was faster than the Zero, handled better at high speeds, and was rugged. So they didn’t try dogfighting with Zeros. They would dive down, make surprise passes, and dive away when things got too hot.
The P-40 was used extensively in North Africa. It was slightly outmatched in many areas by Messerschmitt Bf 109s that it faced, but in the right hands, it was competitive. In fact, new ones in improved versions were built right up through 1944 and it served on the front lines in the Pacific for the entire war.
You’re thinking about the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, which is the massive, rugged “Juggernaut” with the big R-2800 radial in the front. The Thunderbolt started off as a high-altitude interceptor and wound up as an excellent ground-attack aircraft because it was incredibly tough and could carry a lot of ordnance.
}:-)4
.Wonder if the pilot was rescued?
The old “Jug”.....weighed 7-8 tons on take off fully loaded with 6 airborne version M-2s, 50 Cal..
Also had a damned good speed, faster than a P-51 under some circumstances and an upgraded propeller.
Shown in the picture, Col. Gabreski, flew one and was on a mission, it had so many holes in it when he landed, they pretty much had to junk the plane. A virtual flying tank. He was actually once a base commander at Kadena AFB where I was stationed once.
—I don’t mean to be picky...—
Yeah, you do. ;-)
As the article states:
Sadly, authorities believe Copping died trying to cross the desert. The nearest town from the crash site is 200 miles away.
“Once he had crashed there nobody was going to come and get him,” Saunders said. “It is more likely he tried to walk out of the desert but ended up walking to his death. It is too hideous to contemplate.”
I was thinking more "1970s TV movie", specifically the one with Doug McClure as the pilot of a crippled P-40 that is taxiing around the desert, being pursued by a German tank. It had one of those much-used titles like "Death Race".
Looks like I should have read more...
From the story.....he died in the desert since he never got home.
“Once he had crashed there nobody was going to come and get him,” Saunders said. “It is more likely he tried to walk out of the desert but ended up walking to his death. It is too hideous to contemplate.”
So ended Flight Sgt Copping’s service to the Crown. He has no surviving relatives.
Next time any of us think we got problems.....think of Sgt Copping’s last few days in earth. May God have rested his soul.
Plus to weigh in on some comments made farther down.....the P40 was a fine plane for its time. Most effective at low altitude.....since it lacked a supercharger.....it suffered when competing above 10,000 feet with it’s rivals at the time the Zero and the ME-109.
The P-40 could take incredible damage and still return to base PLUS...most US models had six 50 caliber Brownings that made it a very heavily armed puppy indeed.
Looks like this Brit model had at least 2 50’s on it as that is the caliber catridge being handled in one photo.
Not really this model had six .50 cal early on (before the US even enter the war)... six .50 cal became pertty much became the common gun package on all US WW2 fighter
Not really this model had six .50 cal early on (before the US even enter the war)... six .50 cal became pertty much became the common gun package on all US WW2 fighter
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