[NJARC] Wow! I wonder if the radio is still intact?

[john ruccolo]

^BC-NY--Lost Fighter Plane,1066
^Forgotten WWII 'Lightning' fighter found on beach in
Wales
^AP Photos NYR101-102
^By RICHARD PYLE=
^Associated Press Writer=

   NEW YORK (AP) _ Sixty-five years after it ran out
of gas and
crash-landed on a beach in Wales, an American P-38
fighter plane
has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried
_ a World
War II relic long forgotten by the U.S. government and
unknown to
the British public.
   During those decades, beach strollers, sunbathers
and swimmers
were often within a few yards of the aircraft, utterly
unaware of
its existence just under the sand. Only this past
summer did it
suddenly reappear due to unusual conditions that
caused the sands
to shift and erode.
   The startling revelation of the Lockheed
``Lightning'' fighter,
with its distinctive twin-boom design, has stirred
considerable
interest in British aviation circles and among
officials of the
country's aircraft museums, ready to reclaim yet
another artifact
from history's greatest armed conflict.
   Ric Gillespie, who heads a U.S.-based nonprofit
group dedicated
to preserving historic aircraft, finds romance as well
as historic
significance in the discovery. ``It's sort of like
`Brigadoon,' the
mythical Scottish village that appears and
disappears,'' he said.
``Although the Welsh aren't too happy about that
analogy _ they
have some famous legends of their own.''
   Gillespie's organization, the International Group
for Historic
Aircraft Recovery, known as TIGHAR, learned of the
plane's
existence in September from a British air history
enthusiast and
sent a seven-member team to survey the site last
month.
   It plans to collaborate with British museum experts
in
recovering the nearly intact but fragile aircraft next
spring. The
Imperial War Museum Duxford and the Royal Air Force
Museum are
among the institutions expressing interest.
   ``The difficult part is to keep such a dramatic
discovery
secret. Looting of historic wrecks, aircraft or ships,
is a major
problem, in Britain as it is worldwide,'' Gillespie
said.
   British aviation publications so far have been
circumspect about
disclosing the exact location, and local Welsh
authorities have
agreed to keep the plane under surveillance whenever
it is exposed
by the tides of the Irish Sea, he said.
   Based on its serial number and other records, ``the
fighter is
arguably the oldest P-38 in existence, and the oldest
surviving 8th
Air Force combat aircraft of any type. In that respect
it's a major
find, of exceptional interest to British and American
aviation
historians,'' Gillespie said.
   Officially, the U.S. Air Force considers any
aircraft lost
before Nov. 19, 1961 _ when a fire destroyed many
records _ as
``formally abandoned,'' and has an interest in such
cases only if
human remains are involved.
   The twin-engine P-38, a radical design conceived by
Lockheed
design genius Clarence ``Kelly'' Johnson in the late
1930s, became
one of the war's most successful fighter planes,
serving in Europe
and the Pacific. Some 10,000 were built, and about 32
complete or
partial airframes are believed to still exist, perhaps
10 in flying
condition.
   Another P-38, part of a ``lost squadron'' of
warplanes marooned
by bad weather in Greenland while being flown to
Europe in 1942,
was recovered and extensively restored with new parts.
Dubbed
``Glacier Girl,'' its attempt to complete the flight
to Britain
earlier this year was thwarted by mechanical problems.
   The Wales Lightning, built in 1941, reached Britain
in early
1942 and flew combat missions along the Dutch-Belgian
coast.
   Second Lt. Robert F. ``Fred'' Elliott, 24, of Rich
Square, N.C.,
was on a gunnery practice mission on Sept. 27, 1942,
when a fuel
supply error forced him to make an emergency landing
on the nearest
suitable place _ the Welsh beach.
   His belly landing in shallow water sheared off a
wingtip, but
Elliott escaped unhurt. Less than three months later,
the veteran
of more than 10 combat missions was shot down over
Tunisia, in
North Africa. His plane and body were never found.
   The discovery in Wales was stunning news for Robert
Elliott, 64,
of Blountville, Tenn., the pilot's nephew and only
surviving
relative, who has spent nearly 30 years trying to
learn more about
his namesake's career and death. All he knew of the
Wales incident
was a one-line entry saying Elliott had ``ditched a
P-38 and was
uninjured,'' he said.
   ``From the time my uncle was shot down in December
1942 until
1978 we knew nothing. So this is just a monumental
discovery, and a
very emotional thing,'' said Elliott, an engineering
consultant. He
said he hopes to be present for the recovery.
   Gillespie, who last summer led TIGHAR's ninth
expedition since
1989 to search a remote South Pacific island for clues
to the 1937
disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart, said
the P-38 case
is unusual because the crash site is in a populated
area.
   ``This just never happens like this,'' he said.
``They're always
in the most inaccessible places.''
   As the disabled P-38 could not be flown out,
``American officers
had the guns removed, and the records say the aircraft
was
salvaged, but it wasn't,'' Gillespie said. ``It was
gradually
covered with sand, and there it sat for 65 years. With
censorship
in force and British beaches closed to the public
during the war,
nobody knew it was there.''
   It was first spotted by a family enjoying a day at
the beach on
July 31. British authorities said it probably was an
unmanned drone
used for aerial target practice from the 1950s, but a
local
aviation enthusiast recognized it from a local
newspaper photo as a
Lockheed P-38.
   That person notified TIGHAR, which ``quickly and
quietly''
organized a team to visit the site. Due to the threat
of looting,
``we saw it as an aviation preservation emergency,''
Gillespie
said.
   He said that since the survey in October, the sands
have again
buried the plane, and ``whether and when it will
reappear is
anybody's guess.''
   Gillespie, whose father flew 25 bomber missions
from England
during the war, said his team found some British still
feel ``a
strong feeling of gratitude'' toward the young
Americans who did
that.
   ``That's very much a part of British history, and
among people
we talked to, this is not just an American plane,'' he
said. ``As
the lady proprietor of our hotel said when she saw a
photo of the
plane on my computer screen, `that's one of ours.'''
   ^___
   On the Net:
   http://www.tighar.com
   AP-ES-11-14-07 1158EST




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