Vintage Wings of Canada has an interesting story on discovery of a perfectly preserved Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk found in the Sahara Desert seven decades after it crashed during the Second World War.

The fighter plane’s pilot managed to land the damaged plane on the sands more than 320 kilometres from the nearest town. RAF Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping, 24, apparently used a parachute for shelter and tried to repair the radio before giving up hope of rescue and walking away from the wreckage. His body was never found.

Did the pilot have a mechanical problem?  Run out of fuel? Was it lost?  Perhaps we’ll never know.

There’s also a video of the Polish oil crew that made the discovery.