Wrecked RAF P-40 Kittyhawk found in Egypt

[Ridge]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/10/article-2142300-1304CD36000005DC-260_964x716.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142300/Crashed-plane-Second-World-War-pilot-Dennis-Copping-discovered-Sahara-desert.html

[two shoes]

Love the old planes... Props and taildraggers! Awesome how well preserved... note where the fabric was on the tail feathers...

[sniper7]

very awesome!

[Irving]

That's dang cool.

[Lex_Luthor]

Wow, sweet!

[ruthabagah]

I think it's a Tomahawk.... The engine doesn't look like the Packard or Merlin. Looks like a radial engine.... I would say it's a twin wasp. Probably a Tomahawk.

[ruthabagah]

Oops. Never mind, I did not see the updated pic on the original article: It's a Kitty.

[Marlin]

I sure if one had the time and inclination to walk around out there or even the islands of the SW Pacific, you could run across all sorts of stuff.

I remember, about mid 1974, a 49 y/o guy walked out of the Phillipine jungle and surrendered. He just never believe the "propaganda" about the war being over.

[Lurch]

My father flew around that region he said that there is some large spots of nothing.

[Ridge]

And then there is the tragedy of the Lady Be Good (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft))

[stewart]

That's awesome

[whichfinger]

I think it's a Tomahawk.... The engine doesn't look like the Packard or Merlin. Looks like a radial engine.... I would say it's a twin wasp. Probably a Tomahawk.
wat

The P-40 never had a radial engine, and certainly the ones that flew in North Africa never had a Packard or Merlin. IIRC, the only Packard-Merlins installed in P-40s were strictly for evaluation purposes late in the war, and to my recollection none ever saw combat. P-40s flew in combat with Allison V-12s.

Curtiss' predecessor to the P-40, the P-36 Hawk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-36_Hawk), did use a radial engine.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Curtiss_P-36A_Hawk.jpg/300px-Curtiss_P-36A_Hawk.jpg

[Ridge]

A USAAC officer managed to get off the ground in a P-36 at Pearl Harbor during the attack and shot down a couple Japanese planes in his PJs before he was forced down :)

[nickaballison]

wow that is amazing. I cant imagine a place where no human has walked in 70 years, how cool.

[cofi]

And then there is the tragedy of the Lady Be Good (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft))

That was a great read

[ruthabagah]

wat

The P-40 never had a radial engine, and certainly the ones that flew in North Africa never had a Packard or Merlin. IIRC, the only Packard-Merlins installed in P-40s were strictly for evaluation purposes late in the war, and to my recollection none ever saw combat. P-40s flew in combat with Allison V-12s.

Curtiss' predecessor to the P-40, the P-36 Hawk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-36_Hawk), did use a radial engine.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Curtiss_P-36A_Hawk.jpg/300px-Curtiss_P-36A_Hawk.jpg

Except that the P40F that were never delivered to the French before the capitulation in 1940 had a mix of Radial engines and later a some were adapted to carry the Hispano-suiza 12Y removed from downed airplanes, or surplus stored in Algeria. They were extensively used in north Africa, because they were already adapted to the local conditions.

The first picture on the article can be confusing, but the other ones show clearly a V12 config.

[geo351]

cool find !! love the old planes!!

[rshives]

At least we now know where bum-f#$% Egypt is located now. :)

[rondog]

Can't believe the guns are still in it.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Can't believe the guns are still in it.

Yeah me either. They probably disappeared faster than a set of rims at a puff daddy concert.

[rondog]

My father flew around that region he said that there is some large spots of nothing.

For a very brief time in 1981, I worked in the oil fields of Libya.....you talk about vast expanses of NOTHING! I'm sure there's plenty of military folks here that would agree. But I'd bet there's still tons upon tons of WWII wrecks and vehicles of all kinds strewn all over N. Africa. And weapons, and bones, and uniform pieces.....you name it.

[Ah Pook]

Nice find.

200 miles of nothing, lets go walk through it. Not me.

[spittoon]

what about the pilot dam nothin for miles that sucks

[palepainter]

Very cool find. A little duct tape, some gas....good to go.

[DavieD55]

That is pretty interesting.

[JM Ver. 2.0]

At least we now know where bum-f#$% Egypt is located now. :)

This post... It is full of wins and LuLz.

[whichfinger]

Except that the P40F that were never delivered to the French before the capitulation in 1940 had a mix of Radial engines and later a some were adapted to carry the Hispano-suiza 12Y removed from downed airplanes, or surplus stored in Algeria. They were extensively used in north Africa, because they were already adapted to the local conditions.
[Citation needed.]

I was mistaken in that the Merlin was tested and flew in combat before the war ended. But no version of the P-40 ever had a radial engine.

P-40F (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-40_variants#P-40F.2FP-40L_.28British_Commonwealth.2FSoviet_.22Kittyhawk_ Mk_II_and_IIa.22.29) "This version fulfilled the longstanding wish of the British to fit the P-40 with a Merlin engine (which is what ultimately led to the development of the P-51), but it arrived in combat relatively late and ironically, few of this type made it to Commonwealth units.... P-40F/L variants were supplied to Free French squadrons flying in North Africa."

P-40F (http://www.p40warhawk.com/Variants/P-40F.htm) "The P-40F was powered by a Packard-built Merlin V-1650-1 twelve-cylinder Vee liquid-cooled engine .... One hundred and fifty P-40Fs were supplied to the RAF under Lend-Lease"

[Slapps74]

That really is amazing!

[josh7328]

That's crazy, I can't help but think of the hell that the pilot must have gone through.

[bogie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142300/Crashed-plane-Second-World-War-pilot-Dennis-Copping-discovered-Sahara-desert.html

Great reading.


I sure if one had the time and inclination to walk around out there or even the islands of the SW Pacific, you could run across all sorts of stuff.

I remember, about mid 1974, a 49 y/o guy walked out of the Phillipine jungle and surrendered. He just never believe the "propaganda" about the war being over.

Including Amelia Earhart. Rumor has it a Japanese garrison captured her and used her as their concubine.

[birddog]

Great reading.



Including Amelia Earhart. Rumor has it a Japanese garrison captured her and used her as their concubine.

She is hot, oh you are talking about the other one. Sorry

[Ridge]

She is hot, oh you are talking about the other one. Sorry

I've always thought it amusing that the traffic chopper pilot has that name.

[Squeeze]

Airbornepathogen & I were sitting here at work and had an interesting question about this cool little plane. "If" the 6 M2 machine guns are still intact and one were say...able to retrieve those, because they are U.S. made would they be allowed back onto U.S. soil and legally owned by the finder? If so, and they were able to be restored to working condition, that's one heck of a nice little paycheck.

Of course getting out to BFE and bringing them home would be pricey to say the least...but cool as all get out. Just something to think about.

However, I suppose if one has that kind of coin to go out there, get the machine guns, bring them home, have them restored to working operation, at that point keeping them would be the only option. :-)

[ruthabagah]

[QUOTE=whichfinger;465396][Citation needed.]

Dude! Seriously?

Source: My eyes! there is on P40F 9as in France (in the musee de l'aviation Paris Le Bourget) modified with the front of a P36. And another one, on a pylone at the entrance of the Algerian AFB near Meknes, Morocco (at least it was there when I used to stop in a transall in 1991-1992 on my way to French Guyana). This one was modified with the hispano engine.

The P40F was the French denomination of the p36 and p40 AFTER the Vichy airforce was disbanded and what ever was left integrated in the Force Francaise Libre.

"P 40 fran

[ruthabagah]

Airbornepathogen & I were sitting here at work and had an interesting question about this cool little plane. "If" the 6 M2 machine guns are still intact and one were say...able to retrieve those, because they are U.S. made would they be allowed back onto U.S. soil and legally owned by the finder? If so, and they were able to be restored to working condition, that's one heck of a nice little paycheck.

Of course getting out to BFE and bringing them home would be pricey to say the least...but cool as all get out. Just something to think about.

However, I suppose if one has that kind of coin to go out there, get the machine guns, bring them home, have them restored to working operation, at that point keeping them would be the only option. :-)

You will need to get an export license from Libya, and good luck to bring it state side. I dug the 6 MG of a P51 once in France.... I was not able to get the export licenses to donate it to a US museum / collection in Lubbock, TX.... But they receive the tail, canopy, instrument panel, of a FW190 I found near Bordeaux... http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/fockewulf/images/Fw%20190A8%20wnr173056.jpg

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

You will need to get an export license from Libya, and good luck to bring it state side. I dug the 6 MG of a P51 once in France.... I was not able to get the export licenses to donate it to a US museum / collection in Lubbock, TX.... But they receive the tail, canopy, instrument panel, of a FW190 I found near Bordeaux... http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/fockewulf/images/Fw%20190A8%20wnr173056.jpg

Wow that's really cool. Have you seen it n the museum yet?

[whichfinger]

[quote=whichfinger;465396][Citation needed.]

Dude! Seriously?

Source: My eyes! there is on P40F 9as in France (in the musee de l'aviation Paris Le Bourget) modified with the front of a P36. And another one, on a pylone at the entrance of the Algerian AFB near Meknes, Morocco (at least it was there when I used to stop in a transall in 1991-1992 on my way to French Guyana). This one was modified with the hispano engine.

The P40F was the French denomination of the p36 and p40 AFTER the Vichy airforce was disbanded and what ever was left integrated in the Force Francaise Libre.

"P 40 fran
Yeah dude, seriously. Links?

[rondog]

Airbornepathogen & I were sitting here at work and had an interesting question about this cool little plane. "If" the 6 M2 machine guns are still intact and one were say...able to retrieve those, because they are U.S. made would they be allowed back onto U.S. soil and legally owned by the finder? If so, and they were able to be restored to working condition, that's one heck of a nice little paycheck.

Of course getting out to BFE and bringing them home would be pricey to say the least...but cool as all get out. Just something to think about.

However, I suppose if one has that kind of coin to go out there, get the machine guns, bring them home, have them restored to working operation, at that point keeping them would be the only option. :-)

The article says the Egyptian gov. has already seized the guns and ammo for "safety reasons".

[rondog]

[quote=ruthabagah;466428]
Yeah dude, seriously. Links?

3rd plane down. http://www.thevictoryshow.co.uk/Aircraft/tabid/715/language/en-US/Default.aspx

[whichfinger]

[quote=whichfinger;466738]

3rd plane down. http://www.thevictoryshow.co.uk/Aircraft/tabid/715/language/en-US/Default.aspx
3rd plane down is a Curtiss H75 Hawk:

http://www.thevictoryshow.co.uk/Portals/21/Bio%20-%20Hawk%2075.jpg


The Curtiss H-75 was a private venture which flew for the first time in May 1935. Following development and a new engine, three prototype aircraft were ordered by the US Army Air Corps under the designation Y1P-36. This eventually led to the P-36 lineage which went on to serve with around a dozen air arms across the world, including the USAAC as the P-36, the RAF as the Mohawk, and France as the H-75.4th plane down is a P-40F with a Merlin engine:

http://www.thevictoryshow.co.uk/Portals/21/Bio%20-%20P-40F.jpg

[quote]The Fighter Collection

[Ridge]

Indiana Jones wasn't known for his counting skills...

[rondog]

Hey, it was the only pic of a Curtiss I could find with a radial. Thought it "might" be what you were talking about.