P40 in the desert


I think it's a wonderful fake. Someone has skillz.

I think it's real. The details in the 4th and 5th photos look real - bullet holes, warped fuselage, weathered cockpit. Too many details to be fake.

It's a real model

Looks real,have you heard of the "Lady Be Good" story ?

http://www.qmfound.com/lady_be_good_b-24_bomber_recovery.htm




Paul

Yes, I remember the Lady Be Good story.

I've been looking some more at this and there's no answer out there in internet land - the original Polish poster is going to put more pictures up in a few days, he says.

I'm thinking the cockpit shot is probably real (taken when?) but not the distance shots. The close up of the access hatch is tricky, though.

The problem (as with most fake internet stuff) is the lack of identifying codes or serials or people shown in the pics. While I can understand keeping the location secret the serial numbers would be about the second thing I'd be looking to record after checking for the pilot's remains. The oil explorer guys are not daft, I think.

Anyway, the control surfaces seem to match the stick position which indicates little damage to the control cables. The engine cowls are hardly damaged either - would've needed to skate over the rock surface without digging a wing in when landing. The terrain looks a bit rough for that but stranger things have happened.

Ummm...that looks like a false color image of Mars landscape from JPL to me. I call big time fake.

Jason

If it's real, and that's a crash site... the plane is certainly not as broken up as I would have imagined following a belly landing on such rocky terrain. And I doubt that terrain would have changed much in the last half century.

I'm telling you that is Mars. Unless that P-40 has warp drive its a fake. LOL.

Jason

Yep, I say CGI. I'd figure that blowing sand would have scoured every last bit of paint off it by now.

If that cockpit photo is real, then it should be possible to use the Google reverse image search to see if it can be attributed to any known sources.

Hmm. Against my better judgement I'm going with real for this one. A few reverse image searches on even sections of the images doesn't show anything, and JPL's images are pretty well recorded in terms of that being Mars landscapes

It could be a complete set of renders, but that's a lot of effort. Could be a film set I guess. Considering the Sahara can look rocky like that and it's a big place, then a 'maybe' from me..

Looks fake to me and I agree about it being the Mars landscape.

This looks like a piece of one of the larger Mars panoramic pics taken by the rovers and those rocks you see are quite small. But thanks to the size of the plane model they appear bigger. The two don't quite match to me.

Besides, how many Polish dudes are walking around the Sahara searching for oil and gas? Sounds fishy and based too much on the old B-24 story.

Jason

Libya/Egyptian border or Mars Pop Quiz? Answers in the next post

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/23942127.jpg

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1848/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1848R-393140.jpg

http://en.infoglobe.cz/res/data/188/021605_56_234635.jpg?seek=1282695913

Yeah, it does sound fishy but then Oil would probably be the only rational explanation to be wandering around that part of the world

None of those look like the Mars photos I have seen. They all have features I would not classify as something I have seen in all of the Mars photos I have looked at in my spare time so far.

In the first one the rocks look a little too volcanic like earth lava.

In the second the sky is too blue.

And the third has a mountain/mesa feature I have never seen in Mars pics. Looks too much like Arizona.

So my guess is none are of Mars, but I could be wrong, I'm no expert. It's just my educated guess the p-40 pic is fake and the dude used a pic of Martian landscape to be cute.

Jason

Fake but not Mars.

They are all from a Libyan oil field, so you win a, um, fake P40? Guod, can we mail one?

I guess if our Polish guy wanted to be really useful he could get an id/serial mark or something. That would settle it.

I've been to Tunisia and bits of Morocco (not for long, about 3 weeks in all) so I'm certainly no expert, but I was struck on

(a) how crazy-similar some of the desert looked exactly like the mars shots (if you ignore the sky part)

(b) how well stuff preserves in the desert dry air i.e. boneyards

(c) how that base rock could have been 10 feet of sand about 40 years ago

Either way, it's kinda interesting even if fake.

Well, I don't see the landscape looking fake or Martian, really. Nor anything else for that matter. Presuming it's real, the big thing for me is how clean the frame is after a belly landing in those rocks.

Think of being a pilot surviving that landing situation.

We can always go back to a very simple bit of common sense. If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.

Jason

Also, the fourth pic with the little door that is open. I don't see an opening beneath it.

Jason

I dunno man. Looks very close in color.

http://marsstore.blob.core.windows.net/exploremars/5b7d23ee-4dda-45e4-8f62-e4500962057c.jpg

Jason

Yeah, but if I take a random square sample out of that shot and run a reverse image search I get hits that include the NASA archive where they store all the public domain Mars missions pics.

http://www.tineye.com/search/a8fa15aa9973497be1b807f5eb47f844cdbf7358/

If I take any sort of square out of those P40 shots then I can't find anything (so far). The image search normalizes colors, mirrors, tries edges etc, so if it was from Mars then I guess my premise is that it's more likely it would come up.

It's just some dumb fun trying to debunk it. Still looks fake to me, Mars or not.

It's easy to fool people or cast doubt. I had dozens of so called experts searching for info on a squadron in WWII that never existed at one point in time. Was fun watching them debunk it. They too thought such a weird subject would not be faked for faking sake.

Jason

I agree - I don't much care either way, but it's fun to play around with the images.

the 4th picture you can see where the shading, normals and edge smoothing are off.

the 1st or 2nd shot the plane doesnt even look like its part of the photo, it looks like it was added post process (which is wierd).

some of the other photo's have some edge blurs and noise added to hide imperfections, but the errors 3d and filter wise on the 4th shot give it away if its a 3d model.

the sky color and shadows also do not match the shadow angle at all. if the shadow is really offsetting to the left of the plane, the sun, or the flare/aurora/brightness from the sun should be visible to some degree in the 1st and 2nd shot.

Would those two exit holes above the access panel be bullet holes? Being so close together, would they have been fired at a very low deflection to create such a tight pattern?

Real. Sahara midday, sun directly overhead.

I am seeing the outlines of the possible letters HS on the close up side panel shot..

Could those be from the 260th Squadron being they did fly that style aircraft in Morroco and that area?

Different plane but same idea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crashed_Kittyhawk_I_260_Sqn_in_NAfrica_1942.jpg

Of course it is real. Reality is crazier than fiction...

If it is real I hope the pilot was found alive and rescued after the plane crashed.


Wheels

Interesting....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9LsK74J_W0&feature=relmfu

Sokol1

Now it's looking more real to me.

Jason

I admit it may be real now.

I see the canopy was intact in the video.

Interesting. That looks like one restorable aircraft. I wonder how many more are out there like that?

and then they loot it

Wow. Well at least the question is resolved.

Now lets just hope they preserve it and not just tear it apart for souvenirs.

Not to many P-40's from the Africa campaign left if any so this is a treasure to find.

Looks like they were after the MG rounds... It is still a war zone after all...

Cheers

Nico

According to the video description, the Egyptian army was called to remove the MG rounds - which is what you are seeing them doing.

lots of wind noise and overcrontrasted ness, i say its a JJ Abrams movie

Maybe a model, but the stones and erosion marks are real, and they are surely not from Mars.

From a geologist's view this is what you find in desert regions; they may still have placed a faked model in such surroundings,
but really: What for ? There must be hundreds of planes from WW2 or wherever lie around in the north african deserts and this looks like one, simple as that.

Greetings,
Catfish

I still wonder what happened to the pilot ??


Wheels

Daniel Jackson Helped him Ascend.

Now also on Gizmodo:
http://gizmodo.com/5909393/never-before-...-after-70-years

It is definitely a real plane, as i presumed - no one models sahara withering of certain rock formations when he wants to fake a plane with photoshop or whatever (geologist here)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ost_read_module

It crashed over 100 miles from civilization from what I read, the suspected pilot is considered to be a war casualty. They think he got no further than 20 miles of the crash site.

"RAF Flight Sgt. Dennis Copping — was forced down in the desert after being hit by enemy fire.

Copping is believed to have survived the landing before dying in the desert. He was reported missing and presumed dead at the time; the plane he was ferrying for repairs was written off as lost."

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/11/...found-in-egypt/


More Photos

I saw that the other day.


Wheels

The report on the find was just now on the news here in The Netherlands. Almost fell of the couch wen I saw the pictures and footage of the plane.