Any P-40 experts care to comment on this image?

[Michel Lemieux]

Too fun...OK....my 2 cents...Canadian of course!

You belly in....

Look at the surrounding grounds.....all the hard rocky surface....

No more damage than this?

Was the surface the same 60+ years ago?

Was it moved there?

Why did it end up in the only location that does not have rock and is sandy?

It did not flip or break in more pieces than that with the surrouding surface!!!!!

Whith that type of surface I would have figured the bottom end would have been schreeded to pieces.....

[Bluedharma]

I am not sure...
But when you look at the picture inside the cockpit, the horizon tilts the correct way and reflects what is shown in other images.
This is quite a bit of detail for a diorama.

If it is a fake the person who created the diorama should work for the film industry.

[Michel Lemieux]

Correct on congradulating the expert if this is a setup!!!!!!

OK...more to chew and ponder....

Let's say there was a lot more sand 60+ years ago.....and that it progressively sank to expose the terrain.....

How come there is very so much air under the wings... ?

How come this thing has not been sand scrapped / balsted clean to bare metal by now?

Think about it...you are in the desert for 60+ years.......and there is still paint or even metal or windows for that matter? Looks a pretty harsh place to survive for me.

Should it not be.....errr... cleaner?

[Pathfinder]

Nice enhanced pics!

Will someone comment on the "object" below the exhaust manifold....it looks like a prop blade to me that has ripped through the skin like a can opener and stopped just forward of the wing root. I defer to JDK's earlier comment about the prop being supported on two blades, one of which can be seen...but what is this symmetrical thing below the manifold?

[shepsair]

Pathfinder

remains of the MASSIVE chin cowl which has crumpled and been pushed back.

The enhanced photos are great to show more detail.

regards

Mark

[Dan Jones]

If sand dunes "migrate", and apparently they do, the airplane probably bellied into the sand and now the sand has "left". There's just no way that's a model. I've been a modeler for thirty-five years and even Shep Paine couldn't pull that off. I'll stick my neck out here and now and say no contest - that's real. How old the pictures are is another story altogether, but that is a real, authentic, RAF Kittyhawk. I think that thing under the exhaust stacks is lower cowl remains. I expect the third prop blade is still in the hub, and I'd wager that underneath, there's a h-ll of a lot more damage than is evident in the pictures. Nice job on enhancing the photo.

Last edited by Dan Jones on Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Pathfinder]

Thanks! Considering the more than a few P-40 models I built as a kid you'd think I would have recognized that....but then at 1:72 and .49 cents a piece I was going for quantity not quality!!

[CH2Tdriver]

It's not a fake. No one would go through all that trouble with a P-40 as the subject and not put a Shark Mouth on it!!!!

[gregv]

Amazing photos! I hope it's real, and I hope it gets recovered before it gets stripped down. And if it is a fake then bravo to whomever did the work! Couple of questions though:

1) where's the rest of the photos? You'd think that the photog would have taken at least a few more
2) as can be seen from the items laying around, someone has been through the wreck at least once; so why are the guns seemingly still in place?
3) what are the puncture marks on the fuse in the close-up? someone trying to rip something out from the inside, or someone using the wreck as target practice?
4) why no statement from the RAF? Of course I haven't looked for one....
5) most importantly, did the pilot make it? Sure seems like a lonely place to go down.

I look forward to more on this.

greg v.

[Dave Hadfield]

Isn't that an N instrument panel?

Dave

[PinecastleAAF]

Maybe someone took the cockpit photo and built all the other images around it. The cockpit photo reminds me of a couple I've seen downunder.

[peter]

The chap that took the photos has joined the Key Forums and has promised more pictures in a few days.. he confirms it IS a real airplane not fake!

[Jesse C.]

Sorry, but that cockpit pic looks way to neat to me. Most times that I see cockpit shots, they are usually taken from the side, not straight on.

Sorry, but I am a skeptic with only half a glass full of beer!

[Dave Homewood]

People refuse to believe it's real because you cannot see the bloody shark's mouth!!

Perhaps the photographer did not slide back the canopy and hop into the cockpit as everyone seems to be debating, he may have stuck the camera through the small opening such as a broken canopy panel?

[m50a1ontos]

Nice enhanced pics!

Will someone comment on the "object" below the exhaust manifold....it looks like a prop blade to me that has ripped through the skin like a can opener and stopped just forward of the wing root. I defer to JDK's earlier comment about the prop being supported on two blades, one of which can be seen...but what is this symmetrical thing below the manifold?

Looks like a tire to me. If it spun on impact and tore the Starboard main gear off, wouldn't it come to rest sticking out in front of the wing? Landing wheels down on soft sand or a perceived smooth surface that turns out to be not so smooth? Dunno....just throwing thoughts out here.