7/8/2023 0 Comments Ww ii warbirds![]() You could clearly see the Russian star painted over the US star. The paint was in remarkable condition with bright colorization. This pushed the thinner trailing edges and flight control surfaces up, bending them as the ice broke around it, allowing the aircraft to sink into the depths below.Īlso evident after recovery were the incredibly clear aircraft markings. With the engine on the P39 sitting behind the cockpit, the aircraft slipped backwards and down as it broke through the ice once it was no longer thick enough to support the weight of the aircraft. The aircraft sank when the ice eventually thawed. It is thought that the aircraft came to rest on the ice, and for reasons unknown the pilot didn’t climb out. Strangely it was the trailing edges and flaps that suffered the most damage. It transpires that the engine had thrown two rods, forcing him to make a belly landing on a frozen Lake.īaranovsky obviously did a pretty good job of putting it down on the ice, as the leading edges and belly of the aircraft were hardly bruised at all. It had evidence of earlier combat damage with a number of bullet holes from previous missions, but the reason for the aircraft dropping out of formation was finally learned, for there were two large holes in the engine block. Having been in fresh water, the aircraft was in remarkably good condition. The aircraft was moved to the UK for inspection. Finally some closure on his disappearance.” “Missing for 60 years and soon after the recovery on 6th October 2004, the pilot was buried with full military honours at the Glory Valley Memorial, near the Litza Valley, North West of Murmansk. Inside the aircraft they found some remains of the pilot, two medals (the Glory Order III Degree and Military Order of the Red Banner), some shoes, the aircraft logbook, and 11 small cans of food that had been stashed in the ammunition bays (labelled ‘made in USA’). Using floatation bags, the aircraft was raised carefully to the surface and floated to the shore. For just a little further over, sitting on the lake-bed covered in heavy silt, ‘White 23’ waited in hibernation, untouched and unseen for six decades. The team looked at each other, nodded and said “sure”. During the recovery of a crashed WWII fighter from a fresh water lake in ‘The middle of nowhere,’ a fisherman rowed his boat over to the recovery team and asked if they were going to pick up the other one while they were there. But part way into the flight the aircraft broke from formation, disappeared down into cloud, and was never heard from again. On 19th November 1944, 22-year-old Lieutenant Ivan Baranovsky, a combat veteran, departed his Russian base to fly the airplane with his squadron to the recently captured air base at Luostari, near the Norwegian border. But this is the only one that made it right back to where it started. The aircraft was one of 2,565 P-39 Airacobras that followed the same route to World War II's Eastern Front. Somewhere on this route it was assigned its military number ‘White 23’ and this along with its Russian markings were added to the livery (painted over the top of its US markings). Onward it flew a further 3,000 miles to its eventual base near Mumansk, Russia. ![]() After a brief stop on some last US soil in Nome, Alaska, it was flown across the Bering Strait into the Soviet Union. On 1st February, its Soviet pilot arrived to collect the aircraft. It reached Fairbanks, Alaska on 9th January 1944. Just a few weeks later, on Christmas Day, its maintenance log shows it left the plant on the first leg of its long journey to the Soviet Union under one of many Lend-Lease agreements of the time. 44-2911) at Bell’s plant in Buffalo, New York. Some are hiding in plain site, but there’s no one around to see them. Some are seasonal, appearing in the spring before getting swallowed by winter. Like a tale from an Indiana Jones movie, a number of warbirds lie untouched in some of the remotest areas of the world. ![]() Ever wonder where some of the WWII aircraft resurface years and years after being lost in action? Ian Chalkley explores.
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