Aircraft Videos and Images

[taildraggernut]

It's not a foregone conclusion the pilot was dead, the aircraft looks like it made a controlled and surviveable crash landing, he may just have closed it when leaving it for some strange reason.

[mazex]

Originally Posted by taildraggernut

It's not a foregone conclusion the pilot was dead, the aircraft looks like it made a controlled and surviveable crash landing, he may just have closed it when leaving it for some strange reason.

I agree, a plane looking so good in terrain like that sure would need a pilot in rather good shape to handle that landing. And if the pilot was unhurt he sure would have closed the cockpit after leaving the plane... It would be rather strange after all the training to just leave it open in the desert? Then sadly one can guess that he did not make it on foot as the plane is still there without anything being salvaged - if he made it back they ought to have sent some salvage team to at least take some stuff back like instruments/guns etc...? But in the middle of a war that may have not been possible. It would be interesting to read what the RAF knows of the story as they according to the Polish site had identified the aircraft.

When looking at the Polish forum I found a link to the sad story of a B-24 lost in the same area that was not found until 1959, and the crew had lived for a week before the water ran out...

http://www.ladybegood.com/

[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.

[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!

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

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.

On the other hand, today, 70 years later, it's not exactly in the same condition it was when it went down. So, what is it you want to show? The power of sandstorms?
You could as well part it out or restore it.

Or build one friggin huge diorama in a museum(is that realistic?).