Aviation historians are very angry that a Second World War RAF fighter plane has been given a “hideous” makeover. The plane, found in an African desert, was painted and given shark’s teeth. Polish oil company worker Jakub Perka was on an expedition in Al Wadi al Jadidi in May 2012 when he discovered a crash-landed Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk aircraft in “time capsule condition,” writes The Telegraph. The plane hadn’t been touched for 70 years and was relatively intact. A makeshift shelter had apparently been constructed outside the plane using a parachute. This showed that Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping — whose body was never found — had survived the crash but had died from exposure. But before the Kittyhawk was put on display at El Alamein Military Museum, southwest of Alexandria, it underwent a “truly awful and unsympathetic.” It was painted a garish yellow with a set of shark’s teeth painted at the front. Experts think it should have remained untouched.
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