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Almost Perfectly Preserved’ WWII Fighter Discovered in Sahara Desert — 70 Years After Disappearing
The Blaze ^ | 05/10/12 | Becket Adams

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Unclassified; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: curtiss; curtissp40; desert; kittyhawk; ladybegood; lostplane; p40; unitedkingdom; worldwareleven; worldwarii; wwii
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To: AngelesCrestHighway; Thorliveshere

Just answered my own question:

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


81 posted on 05/11/2012 10:52:47 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Vinnie

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


82 posted on 05/11/2012 10:57:41 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: trailhkr1

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)


83 posted on 05/11/2012 10:59:19 AM PDT by Boiler Plate ("Why be difficult, when with just a little more work, you can be impossible" Mom)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

—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.


84 posted on 05/11/2012 11:01:08 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Boiler Plate

So was the TZ episode.

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


85 posted on 05/11/2012 11:02:13 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

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


86 posted on 05/11/2012 11:03:42 AM PDT by Boiler Plate ("Why be difficult, when with just a little more work, you can be impossible" Mom)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway
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.

87 posted on 05/11/2012 11:07:42 AM PDT by Kolb (Compone Accomoda Supera)
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To: Kolb

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


88 posted on 05/11/2012 11:17:28 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Lowell1775

Thanks for the Rest of the Story.


89 posted on 05/11/2012 11:22:38 AM PDT by X-spurt (Its time for ON YOUR FEET or on your knees)
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To: cuban leaf

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


90 posted on 05/11/2012 11:31:05 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Vinnie

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.


91 posted on 05/11/2012 11:35:14 AM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

—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.


92 posted on 05/11/2012 11:43:35 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway
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.


93 posted on 05/11/2012 11:47:10 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf
Here's the picture.
94 posted on 05/11/2012 11:48:29 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: ltc8k6

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.


95 posted on 05/11/2012 11:50:41 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

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.


96 posted on 05/11/2012 11:51:15 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: DH
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 ...

97 posted on 05/11/2012 11:59:51 AM PDT by BlueLancer ("No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full" (Sulla))
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To: Vinnie
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.

98 posted on 05/11/2012 12:09:44 PM PDT by Cowman (How can the IRS seize property without a warrant if the 4th amendment still stands?)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway; freedomlover
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!

99 posted on 05/11/2012 12:38:50 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: tophat9000

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


100 posted on 05/11/2012 1:06:27 PM PDT by Gaffer
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