[div style="overflow: auto; width: 100%;"]Linky: [a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/..._fighter_plane" target="_blank"][font color="#cccc33"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/..._fighter_plane[/font][/a]
[a href="http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071114/480/e85a0fdcf19f4048a4f90914a50fe24f;_ylt=Aqizunc8PW.4RvlSlX5WxfFH2ocA" target="ss"][img alt="This undated photo provided by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, known as TIGHAR, shows historic aircraft specialists inspecting a World War II fighter plane recently found on the Welsh coast. The American P-38 aircraft had made an emergency landing in 1942 after it ran out of gas, and was buried under water and sand for 65 years until revealed by beach erosion in July. Experts hope to recover the plane for a British military museum. The photo was taken from a kite-suspended camera. (AP Photo/TIGHAR)" src="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20071114/capt.e85a0fdcf19f4048a4f90914a50fe24f.lost_fighter_plane_nyr101.jpg?x=180&y=135&sig=lLO8WuUXx5f6dz8V2ND6cw--" border="0" height="135" width="180"][font color="#003399"] [/font][/a] [div class="source"][a href="http://news.yahoo.com/photo/071114/480/e85a0fdcf19f4048a4f90914a50fe24f;_ylt=Av1UU0QwJhu6DhfMtAfsAq5H2ocA" target="ss"][font color="#003399"]AP Photo:[/font][/a] This undated photo provided by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, known as TIGHAR,... [/div]
WWII P-38 fighter discovered in Wales [div class="storyhdr"] [span]By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer [/span] [/p] [/div][!-- end storyhdr --] NEW YORK - Sixty-five years after an American P-38 fighter plane ran out of gas and crash-landed on a beach in [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195076471_0" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);"]Wales[/span], the long-forgotten [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195076471_1" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);"]World War II[/span] relic has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried. [/p] 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.[/p] 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.[/p] 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," said Ric Gillespie, who heads a U.S.-based nonprofit group dedicated to preserving historic aircraft. "In that respect it's a major find, of exceptional interest to British and American aviation historians."[/p] Gillespie finds romance as well as historic significance in the discovery of the aircraft, long forgotten by the U.S. government.[/p] "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."[/p] Gillespie's organization, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, learned of the plane's existence in September from a British air history enthusiast and sent a team to survey the site last month. The group plans to collaborate with British museum experts in recovering the fragile but nearly intact aircraft next spring.[/p] "The difficult part is to keep such a dramatic discovery secret. Looting of historic wrecks, aircraft or ships, is a major problem, in [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195076471_2" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);"]Britain[/span] as it is worldwide," Gillespie said.[/p] British aviation publications 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. For now, the aircraft is again buried under sand.[/p] 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 [span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195076471_4" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);"]Europe[/span] and the Pacific. About 10,000 of the planes were built, and about 32 complete or partial airframes are believed to still exist, perhaps 10 in flying condition.[/p] The Wales Lightning, built in 1941, reached Britain in early 1942 and flew combat missions along the Dutch-Belgian coast.[/p] Rest of Story here: [a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/ap_on_re_us/lost_fighter_plane" target="_blank"][font color="#cccc33"]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/..._fighter_plane[/font][/a][/p][/div]
