World War II fighter found in Egyptian desert

[mhm]

A World War II RAF fighter, which crash-landed in a remote part of the Egyptian desert in 1942, has been discovered almost intact.

There was no trace of the pilot, Flt Sgt Dennis Copping, but the British embassy says it is planning to mount a search for his remains.

The RAF Museum in Hendon, north London, says it is hoping to recover the plane as soon as possible.

There are fears souvenir hunters will start stripping it.

The 24-year-old pilot, the son of a dentist from Southend in Essex, went missing over the Western Desert in June 1942, flying an American-made P40 Kittyhawk single-engine fighter.

Two-and-a-half months ago an aircraft believed to be his was discovered near a remote place called Wadi al-Jadid by a Polish oil worker, Jakub Perka.

His photographs show the plane is in remarkably good condition, though the engine and propeller have separated from the fuselage.

The original paintwork and RAF insignia are said to be clearly visible, almost perfectly preserved in the dry desert air.

But of the pilot there is no sign. He appears to have executed a near-perfect emergency landing, perhaps after becoming lost and running out of fuel, and to have survived the crash.

Full Story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18038650

[viking9]

An RAF fighter plane thought lost in the sands of time after its pilot crash landed in the desert during World War Two has been discovered in what has been described as the "aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb". The almost perfectly preserved Kittyhawk P-40 is an aviation time capsule that has remained unseen and untouched since it came down in the Sahara in June 1942.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9258110/World-War-II-RAF-Kittyhawk-fighter-plane-found-in-the-Sahara-Desert-in-Egypt.html