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P-40 wreck in Sahara


Mustango70

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I'm thinking photoshop.

If you look behind the aircraft there is no evidence of a forced landing, and after hitting those rocks they'd be debris everywhere.

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Very interesting, Im leaning towards a genuine find, mostly because of the last couple of pictures.

The cockpit looks to be authentic, down to the fully forward throttle!

Intriguing!

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Fully forward throttle on forced landing?

An important part of my forced landing drill is:

Fuel: OFF, Mixture: ICO, Throttle: CLOSED, Mags: OFF etc

Even landing with power available you'd normally want the throttle closed as you touch.

But I've no idea about that aircraft and the pics look mighty realistic.

Kirk

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It would be nice to see that back here for the RAF Museum Hendon......alongside the Halifax, Gladiator and Hurri all in similar state!

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There looks to be a bit of damage to the port wing leading edge, but not the starboard. It could conceivably have been a wheels down landing until it hit the rocks under the sand? The prop has ended up behind the aircraft, which smacks of a bit of a front end trauma, possibly a failed nose-over on impact?

Lots of possibilities, and if you had a chance to go in the cockpit of a wrecked plane, wouldn't you fiddle with the controls? I think there's possibly been a bit of "dakka dakka" involved over the years. What seems to imply photoshoppage is the strange scene, which looks a bit surreal. Even the shots of the land used as an example of the terrain looks a bit photoshopped, so it's very possibly the real thing. It would look fabulous in a museum with a facsimile of the ground on which it landed around it. :)

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Fully forward throttle on forced landing?

Kirk

Don't forget, on US aircraft the throttles operated the opposite way to British aircraft.

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Hi,

No, they didn't. It was on French planes.

Fernando

I knew it was someones. But surely on Brit 'planes they were similar??Weren't they?

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Interesting but it could be a very well faked photoshop job and besides, who's to say when (if real) the photos were taken?

IMHO if it is real why is so much of it still intact as I can't see the local desert tribes leaving this untouched - too much of value (to them) still remains on the airframe.

OTOH though, there is of course the possibility that it may have been buried during a sandstorm not long after coming down and uncovered at a later date by another storm.

Cheers

Dave

Edited by tango98
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If it is a fake it is quite well done. The only thing that really makes me suspicious is the pixellization around the rudder against the backdrop of the sky, which would indeed be consistent with a fake, for the little I think I know (and a little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing) about faking photos.

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Hi

I would love to think it was real, but I personally think it is a fake, I know if I found something like this in the desert I get someone to photograph me by it, or if in the desert travelling alone (!) I would put the camera on timer and photograph myself with the aircraft.

The break point of the engine to gearing looks to clean for a crash, no shattered casing,imagine the force required to break off the front of an engine,yet little damage around the cowling.

quote from link

"The plane lay so many years is not bothered by anyone. The finder of the wreck told the RAF and were able to identify aircraft. We do not know why he was only at that particular place. It may puzzle some time find a solution. "

So the RAF in UK should know all about the history of this aircraft.

If it is real we will no doubt hear soon of it soon being recovered.

cheers

Jerry

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I knew it was someones. But surely on Brit 'planes they were similar??Weren't they?

Hi,

Similar to the French ones? Nope, one of the mods they did on the planes acquired on French orders was reversing the throttles.

Fernando

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This link was posted on the Flypast forum yesterday and has provoked a lot of debate.

http://www.konradus.com/forum/read.php?f=1...tr=0&page=1

The debate is whether this is a genuine wreck (the article is in Polish so we're not quite sure) or a diorama.

As a modeller of 13 years, there's no doubt in my mind, especially looking at the fourth picture down, that this is the real McCoy

I personally think it's amazing! Hopefully the original posters on the Polish forum will have some more information soon...!

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