A deal that didn't work out

[sandwichery]

Many of us have heard of the P40 that was discovered in the African desert in 2012. From what I understood a deal had been worked out that would place the aircraft in the RAF Museum where we could all appreciate it. Sadly, that may never happen according to this article. Apparently local politics and the incompetence of the deal makers at the museum may prevent that from happening at all. To top it off the museum may end up losing an all too rare Spitfire.
Hopefully the article is mistaken. If so, someone please set me straight.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...l-for-WWII-aircraft-it-may-never-receive.html

 

[MontyB]

Many of us have heard of the P40 that was discovered in the African desert in 2012. From what I understood a deal had been worked out that would place the aircraft in the RAF Museum where we could all appreciate it. Sadly, that may never happen according to this article. Apparently local politics and the incompetence of the deal makers at the museum may prevent that from happening at all. To top it off the museum may end up losing an all too rare Spitfire.
Hopefully the article is mistaken. If so, someone please set me straight.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...l-for-WWII-aircraft-it-may-never-receive.html

I am amazed at the incompetence of all parties involved in this mess but I suspect that the British will eventually be able to do a deal with the Egyptian government and get the aircraft.

 

[sandwichery]

Hope you're right. The story of the plane and its pilot needs to put on display where the public can appreciate it.

 

[MontyB]

Hope you're right. The story of the plane and its pilot needs to put on display where the public can appreciate it.

From reading various websites I get the impression that the story is not entirely accurate, for example the Spitfire given in exchange was not a pristine flying model but one that had been stripped so basically it was little more than a Spitfire "hull" and that the thing holding up the recovery of the P-40 is the state of Egyptian politics more than anything as right now a P-40 in in the desert is not high on their priorities list.