WWII fighter found in Sahara desert

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An oil-exploration team in Egypt stumbled upon a crashed World War II fighter plane that's apparently been sitting in the Sahara desert for 70 years. Apparently, the Royal Air Force P-40 Kittyhawk is in fantastic condition. Relatively speaking, of course. From National Geographic:

At the suspected time of the crash, Flight Sergeant Copping, the P40's likely pilot, was on a repair run to an RAF desert base—the plane's landing gear had become stuck in the down position. He was probably forced down by an empty fuel tank, the RAF Museum's (Ian) Thirsk said.
Copping was never heard from again. "The pilot obviously got disorientated and lost his bearings," Thirsk said.

"World War II "Time Capsule" Fighter Found in Sahara"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://twitter.com/MrAaronSwainEsq Aaron Swain

Hey. I’ve already seen this episode…. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734584/
- http://twitter.com/MrAaronSwainEsq Aaron Swain
  
  And the movie…. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065007/
  - Rich Keller
    
    Why didn’t he try to rebuild his plane like these guys?
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059183/
    - http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm
      
      Or turn it into a motorcycle like this one?
      http://boingboing.net/2012/05/23/homemade-motorcycled-improvise.html
      - BombBlastLightingWaltz
        
        He may of been in a state such as Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient.
joeposts

Did a little kid walk up and ask them to draw a sheep?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  Right part of the world too.
LI_Mom

Was this too small to be caught by one of the satellite’s snapping pictures of our planet or did it blend in with the environment?

I find it hard to believe with all the surveillance we employ, the govt. didn’t already know it was there.
- Tynam
  
  Well, it was a small, dark, weathered mound, covered with sand. In a desert. Not exactly conspicuous.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4FUD4VOOO53VZJ7HLWAL3MMTIQ Joe F
  
  The camels that lived around it all had Tin Foil on their heads that blocked the satellites. Sneaky
- jandrese
  
  Contrary to what paranoid people think, there isn’t some government agency that goes over every pixel of the Earth with a fine tooth comb looking for stuff. It wasn’t spotted by satellite photos because nobody cared enough to take high rez photos of what is otherwise empty desert, nor spend money to hire an expert to pore over the photos looking for something.
  
  The plane would have been hard to spot anyway as it was painted up in desert camo.
  - cdh1971
    
    That’s just what they want you to think.
    
    Sure they knew about this, and many, many other objects. Why would they go around exposing relatively unimportant things like this willy-nilly ? It would just make us aware of what they’re up to.
    
    And they just cannot have that.
Petzl

By the Fundamental Theorem of Conspiracy, there had to have been something nefarious or something occult involved. There’s no way a plane like this would “just run out of gas.”
- morcheeba
  
  If the landing gear is stuck down, the wind drag will be much higher, causing the fuel efficiency to suffer.
Manny

What is it with “disorientate”? How did it slip into English?
- http://www.twitter.com/george_stirling George Stirling
  
  It’s standard UK English…
Palomino

B flat
C
A flat,
OL- A flat
E flat
jandrese

I see that Rednecks are the same everywhere. Apparently the locals enjoy shooting museum pieces for the hell of it everywhere around the world.
- Manny
  
  Dude, it’s a museum-piece WARplane. It was probably Axis rednecks shooting it up.
- http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm
  
  Speaking of rednecks and museum pieces, take a look at the Khazneh at Petra in Jordan some time. The monumental ‘urn’ on the facade is pock-marked with bullet holes.
  
  Of course, they were made by rednecks with a purpose. Reportedly, the locals believed that the urn was hollow (it’s actually solid rock) and filled with treasure, so they were trying to break it open by shooting at it.
  - ocker3
    
    And/or Napoleonic forces
http://libraries.unl.edu dross1260

Weird. Yesterday I was reading about the SM.79 within the Volandia Air Museum, Italy

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7366093&nseq=0
ackpht

Could have been covered by drifting sands during the satellite pass, low res only of such remote areas (unless you pay), original desert camouflage (low contrast), and no one was looking for it.

Train your image interpretation algorithms for the outlines of all WWII aircraft (properly scaled of course) and turn it loose on Google Earth- who knows, you might find something.

Anyone got any more poop on the Spitfires buried in Myanmar at the end of WWII (when it was Burma)? Supposedly a dozen Mk. XIVs in crates, well-preserved, all destined to come home to the UK.
Ian Christie

mr. lacombe wants the serial number off the engine block…
Mitchell Glaser

Amazing that there is a strange, arid place where stuff sits around forever and nothing changes. And now for the news outside of Washington D.C.
- Culturedropout
  
  You are my new hero.
eldueno

Because a landing wheel was stuck in the down position due to increased drag the piolot may well have run out of fuel even knowing where he was going and not disoriented as presumed. The bent propellers on the detached engine casing indicate a landing where the plane flipped downward and possibly over forwardly, more than likely critically injuring the pilot.
- xzzy
  
  And yet the article says that no remains were found inside the plane. They also mention that someone removed the radio’s batteries.. likely the pilot in an attempt to preserve the charge. The remains of a parachute were also found outside the plane, likely used to generate some shelter.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
    
    He died trying to live.
Henry Pootel

In fantastic condition until some idiots broke out some of the windows.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

Delighted to see this story has finally made it’s way to BB. Was wondering when it would show up. I guess the ole submitterator is jammed up something fierce of late.
RedShirt77

Guy had a flight plan and never showed up, and…. 70 years later. Remind me never to join the military. I hope this guy waited 24 hours, and when no body came, said fuck it and took the next camel to south America.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  I don’t think camels go from Egypt to south America.
  - RedShirt77
    
    The Llamas must be relieved to hear that.
Mitchel Wilkinson

I see your single P-40, and raise you 20 Spitfires…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9203822/Spitfires-buried-in-Burma-during-war-to-be-returned-to-UK.html