WWII P-38 fighter discovered in Wales

[nhboy]

" NEW YORK - Sixty-five years after an American P-38 fighter plane ran out of gas and crash-landed on a beach in Wales, the long-forgotten World War II relic has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried.

Beach strollers, sunbathers and swimmers often frolicked within a few yards of the aircraft, unaware of its existence until last summer, when unusual weather caused the sand to shift and erode.

The revelation of the Lockheed "Lightning" fighter, with its distinctive twin-boom design, has stirred interest in British aviation circles and among officials of the country's aircraft museums, ready to reclaim another artifact from history's greatest armed conflict.:

WWII P-38 fighter discovered in Wales - Yahoo! News

 

[ImnoMensa]

Of the thousands of P-38 Lightning fighter planes manufactured, less than 30 are still in existence. With a wingspan of 52 feet and powered by two 1,425-hp liquid-cooled engines, the plane had a top speed of 414 mph. It had twin tails and a center fuselage pod housing the pilot. When it was introduced in 1939, the Lockheed design immediately made every other fighter aircraft obsolete. Its price in 1941 was $134,284. The value of the Bong Heritage Center's restored, non-flyable P-38 is close to $1 million.

Richard I. Bong WWII Heritage Center :: Superior, Wisconsin

 

[bcp]

gonna be tough to fly it out of there