Almost Perfectly Preserved’ WWII Fighter Discovered in Sahara Desert — 70 Years After Disappearing

The Blaze ^ | 05/10/12 | Becket Adams

[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.

[cuban leaf]

Just answered my own question:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_%28aircraft%29

[AngelesCrestHighway]

great story!...The P-47 was so powerful it was like a small fast bomber.

[Boiler Plate]

From Wili

The Lady Be Good incident was indirectly referenced in a couple of television shows and movies. Sole Survivor, a 1970 made-for-TV movie, was about the ghosts of a B-25 bomber crew that crashed in the Libyan desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sole_Survivor_(1970_film)

[cuban leaf]

—The P-47 was so powerful it was like a small fast bomber.—

I used to fly it in internet WWII battles. If you had some altitude and came up against german (or japanes, for that matter) planes and needed to bug out, you could just drop like a rock and usually make it to safety before anyone caught up.

[cuban leaf]

So was the TZ episode.

This is really pretty interesting. One of the more fun threads here.

[Boiler Plate]

That is the one I saw. I couldn’t remeber the type of aircraft.

[Kolb]

What a tragic and compelling bit of history. Fascinating that this plane survived nearly untouched for all these years. Hope they can locate the missing pilot's remains.

Thanks for posting.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

It still goes to show there are areas of the world that are very desolate and no one ventures into...

[X-spurt]

Thanks for the Rest of the Story.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Have you flown the P-38 yet on the computer?

[ltc8k6]

Few pay much attention, but the A-10 is named after the P-47.

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

The Jug and The Warthog.

[cuban leaf]

—Have you flown the P-38 yet on the computer?—

Yep. I’ve flown pretty much everything produced by everyone that produced planes during WWII. Even some obscure Italian planes.

I didn’t like the P-38 all that much. Twin engine fighters were too much of a compromise. I liked ‘em for ground attack, though.

[cuban leaf]

This was a fun one. It turned on a dime but its guns were almost useless. It was fun to suck P-51's and FW190's in and get them over my base's AAA.

[cuban leaf]

Here's the picture.

[cuban leaf]

I did not know that, but it explains why the warthog is my favorite “modern” warplane. It really harkens back to the P47 for me. I did not know it was intentional.

I used to have a warthog flight simulator. It was a lot of fun.

[DH]

Good ole Lady be good.

When I was at Wheelus AFB in Tripoli her propellers stood at the front gate back in 1967.

I was there when we were kicked out of Wheelus by a young punk named Quadaffi.

Lots of memories come back to mind when I hear the name of that good old plane. I always wonder if they brought the propellers back to the USA when we finally closed the base.

[BlueLancer]

Did you ever see the made-for-TV movie "Sole Survivor" with Richard Basehart and William Shatner?

It was a loosely-based story about the "Lady Be Good". Very hard to find but entertaining overall ...

[Cowman]

She told me her husband had told her that if he could have he would have married that P-47.

There are stories of the jug's coming in with holes in them big enough to crawl through, wings shortened by several inches and cylinders shot off but they still came home.

I don't blame them for having a deep affection for that bird.

[Charles Martel]

Here is the 1973 "TV Movie of the Week" that I mentioned above. Evidently it was released on VHS at some point - and was renamed from "Death Race" to "State of Division" (probably to avoid conflicting with the later film series by a similar name).

I'd forgotten that the Nazi tanker was played by Lloyd Bridges!

[Gaffer]

You’re right. I remember now....the outer 50s were just recessed in the leading edge and not seen in profile like the others.