Aircraft Videos and Images

[BigC208]

I find it surprising that nobody has bought the wreck. I've seen wreckage in much worse condition sold for restoration. A p40 in original flying condition should go between 1.5 to 2 million US $. It looked like all the parts were still there in the first video, even the instrument panel looked untouched. I understand that they send the military in to expose of the weapons and ammo but it would've made more sense to treat it as an archeologic recovery. Spoons and toothbrush approach instead of crowbars. Just having the whole thing filmed professionaly by a national geographics team would've made for a nice documentary. Some governement official in Egypt dropped the ball on this one.

[DUI]

Originally Posted by DroopSnoot

FOUND IT !!!

It was under its American Title, awful quality though.
ENJOY

Enjoyed it! Thanks a lot!

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by whoarmongar

As someone has already said the canopy was closed so its a fair assumption the pilots remains were still inside.
The wreck therefore should be considered a war grave it just seems sacriligious to bust the canopy open and desicrate this site, irispective of the archiological importance of this find.
Even on a financial front surely the aircraft recovered complete has a far greater value than the transportable parts just sold as bits on ebay.

That's speculation,considering the fact that the plane safely belly landed,the pilot walked out of it and probably closed the canopy shut to protect the inside: think about it,if you had to abandon your car wouldnt u still make sure it's shut?

Originally Posted by mazex

Well, it's been there is the desert for 70 years without anyone stealing those old .50 guns/rounds - I guess getting a working AK for a few bucks in that region is a lot easier than going out there picking up those dusted up guns It just hurts seeing them tear those ammo boxes away...

It looks extremely well preserved (due to the dry climate naturally). But one can wonder what happens to aluminium that has been exposed to extreme heat every day for 70 years, and then rather harsh cold every night I was in the Sahara not far from there long ago and the temperature range you go through in a 24 hour period is rather impressive...

Well removing explosives and ammunition it's the first thing you do before moving a wreck,and that's whats happening: they surely know the value of their find and as we speak it wouldn't surprise me if the wreck is already on a lorry to somewhere. As for the preservation,the first thing that you notice is that most of it looks sand blasted,while the rear section of the fuselage is still retaining most of its original paint! It wouldnt surprise me if the wreck was half buried in the sand for decades. A dry hot environment is the best way to preserve such materials (think of the huge desert depots in the US),still the plane is far from being an easy restoration.

[ElAurens]

Guys, that is not a Tomahawk.

It's at least an E model, Hawk 87 series. It never had nose guns.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by BigC208

I find it surprising that nobody has bought the wreck. I've seen wreckage in much worse condition sold for restoration. A p40 in original flying condition should go between 1.5 to 2 million US $. It looked like all the parts were still there in the first video, even the instrument panel looked untouched. I understand that they send the military in to expose of the weapons and ammo but it would've made more sense to treat it as an archeologic recovery. Spoons and toothbrush approach instead of crowbars. Just having the whole thing filmed professionaly by a national geographics team would've made for a nice documentary. Some governement official in Egypt dropped the ball on this one.

Unfortunately the warbirds archaeology and restoration business is a ruthless one: this wreck surely bears a lot of importance for the fact that is a very rare thing to find such a time capsule,but there are a million ways this thing could be handled wrong. The leaking of pictures and videos on the Internet is an example of how things could be handled wrong. I don't know yet whats gonna happen to this wreck,and even if it looks complete,it would be a shame to restore it to flying conditions,since you would still have to take it apart completely and re-build most of it,losing much of the original material,only to bring back to the skies a not so rare warbird.
As I said,I hope that it will be taken to a museum and exposed as it was found,since this is a proper archaeological find,not a restorable barn find.

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

Unfortunately the warbirds archaeology and restoration business is a ruthless one: this wreck surely bears a lot of importance for the fact that is a very rare thing to find such a time capsule,but there are a million ways this thing could be handled wrong. The leaking of pictures and videos on the Internet is an example of how things could be handled wrong. I don't know yet whats gonna happen to this wreck,and even if it looks complete,it would be a shame to restore it to flying conditions,since you would still have to take it apart completely and re-build most of it,losing much of the original material,only to bring back to the skies a not so rare warbird.
As I said,I hope that it will be taken to a museum and exposed as it was found,since this is a proper archaeological find,not a restorable barn find.

archaeological find, barn find either way they really need to get it out of there before it "disappears" in the dead of night...at the very least that is a 100,000 dollar gimme just sitting in the sand.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Looked like they were being quite gentle to me (in their own way).

During the 80's a group of enthuiasts went to recover a Spitfire from a mud flat near Broome Western Australia. They saw the cannons were still loaded so they called the RAAF. The RAAF sent in a team who, to the Horror of the Enthusiasts, stapped explosive charges to the magazines and exploded them.

Whats more important? A 70 year old wreck or the lives of the recovery team? The RAAF obviously went for the latter.

Cheers!

[DroopSnoot]

Originally Posted by 41Sqn_Stormcrow

Ah, me too. I think it is a beautiful plane and it has something very American about it. While the stang has something of a glamour boy and Cadillac style about it the P40 seems to me to be more grass root cowboy style.

Totally mate yeah, kinda like the same relationship between the Spitfire and the Hurricane, Spitfire was to dazzle the girls, the hurricane was to kill the enemy.

[Sutts]

Some thoughts on the 2 videos......


The big guy at the end of vid 2 is the rich guy, the boss. My guess is he is associated with the oil drilling operation. From the look of him I think his interest extends to more than a few ebay sales.

The guy with the hood and his arm around the big guy is possibly AWOT's friend, the oil explorer who made the discovery and reported the find to someone - possibly the big guy.

Most of the guys in the 1st vid are wearing the same trousers with a stripe - employees of the big guy and have been tasked to move the aircraft.

The recovery is officially sanctioned - based on the army removing the ammo.

The guy on the wing at the end of the 2nd vid is removing a wing root access panel - this isn't souveniring behaviour - it suggests to me that they are trying to remove the wings the proper way.

The gunsight removal may be souveniring or could be an attempt to remove items that may be damaged in the recovery / lifting operation. In almost all recoveries from far off places things go missing - the 110s/Stuka/Fw190 from Russia all suffered in some way so a few pieces may well go astray.

The deep slash in front of the windscreen is new and quite worrying - why do such a thing and what tool would make such a mark with outward facing tears?

They have already made an attempt to remove the rudder (top hinge disconnected) and possibly the left elevator (access panel open).

From all this I think we have a guy in charge who knows the value of what he has. He is wealthy and has a team who work for him. I think the videos show the start of the dismantling process and these have been put out there to generate interest.

This may be an overly positive view but I hope I'm right. I do hope AWOT can get back to us with a real assessment of the future of this bird.

[DroopSnoot]

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