Aircraft Videos and Images

[ElAurens]

+1 to that.

It deserves a better fate than to be cut up and sold for scrap in some bazaar in Cairo.

I had hoped the RAF would intervene. I know the US Navy considers all of it's crashed aircraft to still be the property of the USN.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

+1 to that.

It deserves a better fate than to be cut up and sold for scrap in some bazaar in Cairo.

I had hoped the RAF would intervene. I know the US Navy considers all of it's crashed aircraft to still be the property of the USN.

well it's a bit of a slippery slope. AFAIK there's been no disclosure on the exact location of the wreck, and the recovery of such delicate thing means a great deal of careful work and above all an adequate mean of transportation.

Then u have to deal with the local authorities and discuss the conditions of the removal. As for property, it's not that simple either: normally one needs to respect the legislation of the country the relic is found, you can't just go there and pick it up because it was your operational machine 60 years ago. If the wreck is in a country that you were fighting against that would technically be considered a war trophy, so you would have no rights over it. Normally governments don't make fuss over this stuff because it bears little or no importance to them, but rest assured that if it was a transport plane stacked with gold lingots and other valuable items there would be a mega row over it.

Whatever the case, it's obvious that the airplane as it is makes no worthy base for a flyable restoration (unlike the alleged Burma spits), and the historical value is far too important to receive a dramatic restoration. The P-40 is not a rare aircraft per se, what's rare and unique is having found one in such remarkable and complete conditions 70 years after it was lost. Those barbars should be slapped around the head for having removed the ammo boxes (when they could have simply removed the ammunition), but unfortunately we're not all aviation experts.

[JG52Uther]

Make an excellent 'diorama' like the Gladiator and Halifax at the RAF museum! Depends if the interest is there, and the funds. I think the RAF museum is pretty much tied up in the Dornier 17 recovery, and, in the cold light of day, that is a much more valuable find.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by JG52Uther

Make an excellent 'diorama' like the Gladiator and Halifax at the RAF museum! Depends if the interest is there, and the funds. I think the RAF museum is pretty much tied up in the Dornier 17 recovery, and, in the cold light of day, that is a much more valuable find.

Yeah, that would be an excellent idea, especially considering the expansion plans for Hendon.

As for recovery costs, I can't think of it being that dramatic actually, nothing that a couple of Chinooks couldn't take away. It would surely entail the disassembly of the wings from the fuselage, but I can't imagine that being a costly operation to complete (ElAurens, what's the P-40 wing structure like? Monospar all across making one big wing like Mustang and T-6, or two separate wings?)

Finding this kind of stuff is like stealing a piece of art for a private collector: you would be able to smuggle it and sell it to some private collector, but he wouldn't be able to show it to the public or let people know about it.

Let's hope that common sense will prevail eventually