In Greenland, under a thick layer of ice, a "Lost Squadron" P-38 fighter



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In Greenland, under a layer of ice a hundred meters, researchers found a US P-38 fighter belonging to the so-called "Lost Squadron". This is written by Naked Science, referring to Popular Mechanics.

  Image: US Army / popularmechanics.com
Image: US Army / popularmechanics.com

This story began on the morning of July 15, 1942, when six Lockheed P-38 Lightning bombers and two heavy bombers Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress took off from the secret base of the US Air Force in Greenland. Winged vehicles were sent to the British airfield to participate in the war against Nazi Germany. The snowstorm surprised the pilots. I had to cancel the landing that I had previously badigned in Iceland for refueling. At one point, the pilots realized that it was only up to them to land urgently in Greenland

. The story ended happily: nine days later, all the pilots managed to be saved, but the planes remained in an icy "trap". In 1992, American amateurs raised funds for the expedition and decided to go to the abandoned equipment. It has turned out that in recent decades, cars have been buried under a layer of snow and ice of a thickness of about 80 meters. The experts, however, were successful: they picked up the detected P-38 ° F piloted by Harry Smith.

Now, a team of specialists from the nonprofit organization Arctic Hot Solutions found another P-38 of the Lost Squadron at 300 feet (about 90 meters). The first aircraft indices appeared in 2011. Subsequently, the application of georadar allowed to accurately determine the location of the object. With the help of a special probe, the researchers drilled a well and verified that they did have a WWII aircraft and not an object of natural origin.

  Image: Arctic Hot Point Solutions / popularmechanics.com
Image: Arctic Hot Point Solutions / popularmechanics.com

The car was identified as the "Echo" P-38, which was driven by Robert Wilson . With the help of the authorities of Greenland, the United States and the United Kingdom, experts plan to start the extraction process. As during the restoration of the previous fighter, the team plans to use hot water to free up space around the aircraft. Then the car will be partially dismantled and removed from the "captivity" of the ice.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning is one of the most unusual and iconic aircraft of the Second World War. It consists of two tail girders and a gondola with a pilot cabin and bading between them. P-38 – the only aircraft produced in the United States during the war. Even at the final stage, he remained one of the best fighter-bombers in the world

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