And A Primary Support Aircraft Will Be A Russian-Designed Biplane

A team hoping to recover a P-38 Lightning from under more than 260 feet of Greenland glacier ice  has acquired a support aircraft they say will be perfect for the job ... a Russian-designed Antonov AN-2 biplane which was mouldering in Ovid, NY.

Antonov AN-2 File Photo

Californian Ken McBride is leading the team which will attempt to extract a second P-38 from a 1942 crash site in Greenland. The planes were part of a flight of six P-38's and two B-17's which went down during the war. All of the crewmembers were rescued, but the aircraft were unrecoverable at the time. Over the years, they have become encased in the ice of the glacier.

The AN-2 hasn't flown for about two years. It was owned by a resident of Ovid, who sold it to a person in Texas who has sold it again to the Greenland team. The Ithaca Journal reports that McBride and 7 other men are working to bring the aircraft back to flying condition, and plan to fly it to Greenland next week. Two of the team members will fly the AN-2 while the others will travel on commercial flights.

The team says the AN-2's 95 knot cruising speed and unimproved runway capabilities make the aircraft very well suited to operating on the Greenland glacier.

P-38 "Glacier Girl"

Recovering the first P-38, dubbed "Glacier Girl" from the crash site required hot water pumps and specialized equipment including something called a thermal meltdown generator to tunnel into the ice to get to the plane. The aircraft was brought to the surface in sections, and restored in California. The effort cost in the neighborhood of $3 million in 1992, but Glacier Girl, which was restored to flying condition, sold for $7 million after the project was completed.

FMI: http://p38assn.org/glacier-girl.htm