Kittyhawk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

That's terrific!! I hope someone brings it back, but would you restore it to fly again or leave it as is?

I had see it also Henk, thinking on the young flyer first the joy of staying alive of a plain chrash and than a slow dead in the dessert without water!


Bram

email (option): Bram@ockhuizen.com

Henk.

I see that the canopy is still closed, does this mean the pilot was still in the thing?
I think there must be tons of stuff laying around in these deserts, I know when I was in Tobruk area in 1963 the guys were playing about with what they thought were batteries but they were quickly told to put them down, turned out they were Italian anti personel mines. Oh what fun we had

TT John

email (option): Jomichael@aol.com

That is a great find! A very nice candidate for restoration. The P-40 did not have a center section. The wings where joined together and then fuselage mounted on top. Most likley there is damage to the wingspars which can be a headache.

Note the propeller, blades damaged to the sides, so that means the engine was not at power when crashed. If you hit a prop to ground with power, blades will bend forward due to the centrifugial force.

Hope the get it out and restore it.

email (option): hsteinsson28@hotmail.com

Fascinating.....Chap I know works over at Duxford air museum Cambridge & has been on a few "parts missions" all around the world getting bits off planes in deserts ETC.
What a great job.

I found the following story on the web:

"Kittyhawk Down

The vast featureless expanse of Egypt’s western desert stretched before the pilot as his aircraft sank inexorably to the ground. It was June 28, 1942. Somewhere below the British Eighth Army was in retreat from Rommel’s advancing Panzers.

This was supposed to be a routine flight taking a single seater P-40 Kittyhawk to an RAF base for repair but en route the pilot Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping had lost his bearings.

Just before the aircraft ran out of fuel and hit the ground he pulled up the nose to execute an almost perfect crash landing. He was able to climb unscathed from the cockpit. But that, sadly, was where his luck ran out.

The disappearance of the fighter was just another untold story of World War Two until the end of February when it was discovered intact and perfectly preserved. The arid desert air had protected the original camouflage paint work and RAF insignia which were clearly visible when a Polish oil worker stumbled across it.

Since the discovery the RAF Museum at Hendon in north London has been trying to arrange the aircraft’s recovery but has been frustrated by Egyptian bureaucracy and the remote location. Aviation historians are now urging the British government to make representations to the Egyptian authorities for fear the wreckage will be picked clean by souvenir hunters before it can be salvaged.

A parachute rigged up as an awning beside the crashed aircraft suggest the pilot survived and used it shelter from the sun before setting off to try to reach civilisation. He had also removed the radio and batteries from the plane in a vain attempt to call for help.

He crashed nearly 150km from the nearest village and no further trace has been found of 24 year old Flight Sergeant Copping.

The aircraft was found by chance by a Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka who was exploring a remote region of the western desert near Wadi al-Jadid. The find was reported to the Egyptian authorities and the army removed the guns and ammunition to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. A British diplomat based in Cairo is awaiting permission to visit the site to record details of the aircraft and confirm its identity.

The name of FS Copping, the son of a dentist from Southend in Essex who flew with the RAF’s 260 squadron, is recorded on a war memorial commemorating the Battle of El Alamein. He is not believed to have any surviving family.

Aviation historian Andy Saunders, from Hastings, East Sussex, warned yesterday that the aircraft needed to be recovered as soon as possible. He said: "The aviation historical world is hugely excited about this discovery.

"This plane has been lying in the same spot where it crashed 70 years ago. It is an incredible time capsule, the aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb.

"The plane is in a very good condition but sadly it is being stripped by locals who don't regard it as part of their heritage but as a piece of junk that may have some scrap value. Things are happening very slowly with the recovery, mainly because we are in the hands of the Egyptian authorities.

"The MoD needs to act and get the plane out of there as soon as possible."

Mr Saunders said the pilot had almost certainly perished in the desert. He said: "If he died at the side of the plane his remains would have been found.

"It is more likely he tried to walk out of the desert but ended up walking to his death. It is too hideous to contemplate.”

Captain Paul Collins, the British defence attache in Cairo, confirmed there will be a search of the area around the plane. He said: "The pilot isn't in the plane but there is evidence to suggest he got out.

"It is likely he walked away and was clearly lost. We are talking about a 100 square kilometre area and it is extremely unlikely that we will find any remains.

"The scene is close to a smuggling line from Sudan and Libya. We will need to go there with the Egyptian army because it is a dangerous area."

ends

"

An amazing find but a sad tale of a pilots death..not a nice way to go...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

I have made several trips to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe over the years. But only once during daylight. I was made aware just how vast the Sahara is, as about 5 hours of the 10 hour flight was spent looking at that pink sand. Definitely not a place to be on foot.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

its a shame unless they send in the SAS to protect it there will be nothing left they should move it to a safe position like the british embassy then they argue about getting it back to england it officialy still belong to the RAF

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

I have been to many WWII crashsites in Iceland. Most on mountain sides with wrecks in poor condition. The now famous "Eyjafjallajökull" source of the 2009 volcano which stopped airtraffic in Europe, has a wreck of a B-17. It was presereve well in Ice over 60 years and relics there in an amazing condition:

Just amazes me what still turns up, I hope the wreck is rescued, sad the Pilot didn't make it out and home. There was a B-17 out east in a swamp that was saved last year I think, now just sits in crates, whilst the powers that be argue about it. A few things out there right now, the Spitfires in Burma, the German bomber in the sea that will soon be raised. I'm sure those tanks in the French woods will be recoverd sometime, and there's I'm sure a few more gems that will come to light. Closest I'm to a full aircraft are my 3 mission flown B-17 prop blades...

I really enjoy aircraft such as Just Jane and The SNAFU special, not just because they are great aircraft, but they are restored by great folk like us lot, with great passions to keep theses things and the memories alive.

email (option): Kit247@hotmail.com

the saddist thing was the 4 engine bomber not sure what model it was found it iceland got to flying condition to get it to the states but caught fire and burnt out before it even took off

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

Roger, you are refering to the B-29 "Kee Bird" which was abandoned on a frozen lake in Greenland, intact. In 1995, it was overhauled on the ice, but while the crew was doing taxi trails, the aircrafts auxilary power unit caught fire, destroying the plane. It had been incorrectly rigged to a fuel tank. You can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kee_Bird

B-29 Frozen in Time documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFdFo9Yo0LI

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl