Eerie Second World War RAF fighter plane discovered in the Sahara

This is a great story. If you're a fan of aviation history, this is a great article with some fantastic pictures. It's well worth a few moments to read the story, and look at the pictures.

www.dailymail.co.uk... ml

He was hundreds of miles from civilisation, lost in the burning heat of the desert.

Second World War Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping took what little he could from the RAF Kittyhawk he had just crash-landed, then wandered into the emptiness.

From that day in June 1942 the mystery of what happened to the dentist’s son from Southend was lost, in every sense, in the sands of time.

But 70 years later, the ghostly remains of his battered but almost perfectly preserved plane has been discovered.

Like a time capsule that could provide the key to his disappearance, it had lain intact alongside a makeshift shelter Dennis appears to have made as he waited, hopelessly, for rescue.

Now a search is to begin for the airman’s remains – as aviation experts and historians begin an operation to recover and display the P-40 aircraft in his memory.

The chance find was made by an oil worker exploring a remote region of the Western Desert in Egypt. It is more than 200 miles from the nearest town in a vast expanse of largely featureless terrain.

Flight Sergeant Copping, part of a fighter unit based in Egypt during the North Africa campaign against Rommel, is believed to have lost his bearings while flying the damaged Kittyhawk to another airbase for repair. All that is known is that he went off course and was never seen again.

There's probably very little chance that the remains of the pilot will be found, but perhaps they will.

I think it's a great discovery that will add just a little more to aviation history.

‘He must have survived the crash because one photo shows a parachute around the frame of the plane and my guess is the poor bloke used it to shelter from the sun. The radio and batteries were out of the plane and it looks like he tried to get it working.

It's a frightening thought to crash land in a location such as this, and I'm sure that if the pilot could tell the tale, it would be one that would be amazing and heartbreaking at the same time.

wow a nice albiet morbid look into a slice of history and time.
there's a giant dune in california called glamus dunes.
there are tons of downed aircraft there just laying around the scattered landscape.

that must have been one dark moment for the pilot.

Any clue where this is?
It would be cool if it could be seen on Google maps!

This was posted last month but cool to see it again!P-40 Sahara

reply to post by Alchemst7


Thanks for the link to the old thread.

There's some good information in it, was well as extra pics and video.

I did do a search before posting this thread, but didn't find anything...at least this one is in a different forum.

reply to post by waveydavey


It would be cool to find it on Google Earth. It's going to be hard finding in with knowing where to look though.

reply to post by isyeye


I saw this earlier on Gizmodo. Awesome find, sad story about the pilot though. I wonder what else is out there just waiting to be found?

Starred and flagged.

Looks like a good place NASA could use to run a little rover around to make fake Mars Rover mission photo's.