From recent pictures I've seen on another forum the aircraft is already suffering; been shot at, plexiglas broken, bits torn off.
Sad. May not be much left to recover. It certainly doesn't seem to be being protected.
The so called bullet holes are nothing of the sort:
That's clearly flak damage, the reason the aircraft was being ferried in the first place. That's unless someone got inside the fuselage with guns of varying calibre and shot out of it.
If you look carefully at the last picture of the instruments and the last tuned in ADF freq, back plot from the initial point of departure using the g/s from the frozen DME indicator and time from the original ATD you should be able to pin point it fairly closely in the 10,000,000 square miles of sand come on really google earth get real
stepwilk And you don't think a thousand of us, or more, haven't already tried that? What are we, stupid?
If you really have that much time on your hands to search the desert using google earth that is 3-5 years out of date for an aircraft that crashed 70+ years ago, then yes you are my friend.
Since writing this small story, it seems that speculation as to the identity of this aircraft has settled around Kittyhawk ET574, lost while being ferried to a repair depot with the landing gear in a locked down position. Until this can be confirmed we will not speculate as to the identity and fate of the pilot until it is assured that his identity is positive and his family notified. Richard Allnutt and I have played with a couple of the photos to try to bring out the serial number on the back of the aircraft. On the right side, we were able to distinguish a letter “T”, a numeral “4” and part of the numeral “7”. On the left side, we can barely see the remains of a letter “E”. With these clues, we are quite certain that this will finally be identified as ET 574.
Since the discovery, the wreck has been seriously vandalized - a travesty the whole aviation world seems unable to stop. The perspex has been smashed out, bullet holes appear in the cowling and other forms of damage and theft seem to be underway.
PPS
Now that every news agency is mentioning Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping's name, we will now put it in this article. We have know since we first put this story out that is was most certainly Copping, a 24 year old son of a British dentist who went missing while ferrying this aircraft in 1942. Stocky Edwards mentions Copping in his book Kittyhawk Pilot. There are now rumours that the RAF and the Brits will try to find Copping's remains. This will undoubtedly be a difficult task.
This thread makes me long for the days when people simply trusted that a photo was real, rather than treating every picture as some sort of personal challenge to prove why it was a forgery.
Last edited by Jazz Hands; 11th May 2012 at 21:32.
Well said Jazz Hands. It seems that whenever a photo of something that is considered relatively unlikely appears, the first assumption is that it's a fake rather than believe in what we are seeing. Not necessarily applicable to this thread but it is interesting to note that those that clearly believe something is a fake go terribly quiet when it is demonstrated otherwise
He poses proudly in his RAF uniform and also looks down from the cockpit of his Second World War fighter plane, perhaps ready for a mission against the Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel.
These are the first pictures of 24-year-old Flight Sergeant Denis Copping, the wartime pilot who crash-landed his plane in the Sahara and then walked off across the sands to his death.
His story came to light last week when pictures of his Kittyhawk P-40 were published. The battered but well-preserved wreckage was found in the Western Sahara – 70 years after the plane came to grief. It was believed that Flt Sgt Copping had no surviving relatives, but The Mail on Sunday found his nephew, whose family album contains these poignant photographs.
William Pryor-Bennett revealed that, until now, the fate of his uncle had been a mystery because all the family had been told officially was that he was 'missing in action'.
Poignant: Flight Sergeant Denis Copping in his RAF uniform aged 24, just days before he went missing
I too, like most people, was interested in the human element to this story. Looking at the photos it's quite poignant to think that the last person to manipulate the flight control was the RAF pilot himself, and knowing that his situation was impossible is a difficult thought to contemplate.
I was keen to find a photo of the pilot so that in some ways its completes the story of this human tragedy and now we have some. Unfortunately the comments of some of the SUN readers shows that some people are truly ignorant of life.
"Maybe he should have used the parachute for it's intended purpose and not to make a tent"
"the plane should be left wehere it is, or be mowed to egyptian air museum. that is egypt history as well. or sell it for good money .....and what he was doing there in the first place. as far as i know from my geografy lesons egypt is not part of the "united kingdom"
"Maybe he should have used the parachute for it's intended purpose and not to make a tent"
"the plane should be left wehere it is, or be mowed to egyptian air museum. that is egypt history as well. or sell it for good money
.....and what he was doing there in the first place. as far as i know from my geografy lesons egypt is not part of the "united kingdom"
"Out dated crappy aircraft in 1942"
I could not agree more.
However, some of my university students speak and write just like that, and they are studying to be airline pilots!!!
Last edited by Lightning Mate; 13th May 2012 at 12:35.
That's clearly flak damage, the reason the aircraft was being ferried in the first place. That's unless someone got inside the fuselage with guns of varying calibre and shot out of it.
come on really google earth get real 
Poignant: Flight Sergeant Denis Copping in his RAF uniform aged 24, just days before he went missing
