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| East Asia |
| China to Raise Sunken U.S. Fighter Plane |
| 2003-08-19 |
| Crews will enlist high-tech ocean searching and mapping gear to raise an American ``Flying Tigers’’ jet that crashed in a lake during World War II, organizers said Monday. The P-40 from the legendary squadron went down in Lake Dian near the city of Kunming, one of China’s wartime capitals, during a training missing in April 1942. The plane’s pilot, John Blackburn of Amarillo, Texas, was killed in the crash. His body was recovered shortly after the crash, but the plane has remained the lake for six decades, said the China Expedition Association, which hopes to raise the fighter by the end of the year. Association President Yan Jiangzheng said the plane lies under 16 feet of water and is covered with a deep layer of mud and silt. After recovery, the plane will be sent to America for repairs. But it will eventually be returned to China, the association said. The Tigers fought on behalf of China against Japanese invaders before the United States entered World War II. The group existed for only nine months, but is famous for its success in battle. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 Not to be nit-picky,but the Flying Tigers actually didn't start fighting until after Pearl Harbor.First combat with Japanese occured on Dec.20,1941. |
| Posted by: Stephen 2003-8-20 12:04:02 AM |
| #9 The Red Chineese are gonna reverse engineer a Tomahawk? Does that mean that we'll see cheap, imported P-40 replicas for sale at Wal-Mart and Super K-Mart? Cool. |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-8-19 6:05:42 PM |
| #8 Man, get one technical word rhong in an article and you guys are all over it like ants on spilled honey, LOL! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-8-19 1:52:01 PM |
| #7 Oh man, someone tell me how I missed "P40 jet" at 1 in the morning. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-8-19 10:41:17 AM |
| #6 The Red Chinee are gonna reverse engineer a Tomahawk? I think they already have - of the kind with the sharp edges. Just check out one of the outdoorsman catalogs. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-19 10:21:07 AM |
| #5 Quagmire! |
| Posted by: seafarious 2003-8-19 9:56:21 AM |
| #4 Jets of any kind at a front in 1942. And it still took us 3 years to finish winning the war! How did FDR and Churchill manage to screw it up?? Time for an investigation? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-8-19 9:03:13 AM |
| #3 The Red Chinee are gonna reverse engineer a Tomahawk? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-8-19 7:28:52 AM |
| #2 P40 jet?!! It wouldn't be an Al Grauniad aritcle without a glaring factual error or two. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-8-19 6:14:49 AM |
| #1 A P40 jet? Then I am really impressed by the Japanese pilots who were able to down some of them while flying mere Zeros. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-8-19 3:43:21 AM |