The Lost P-38 Fighter that was Frozen in a Glacier for 50 Years 

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Hope you guys enjoy this story! A very cool tale of some devoted warbird enthusiasts. Also, technically, the US insignia on the aircraft is incorrect in this video. I was unable to locate a more accurate skin to use, so I did my best. Thanks for watching and comment any ideas for new videos!

Before finding glacier girl the team found one of the b17s but she was in a terrible state so I’m not sure if they recovered her or left her

I was lucky to see her fly at the Gathering of Lightnings at the Planes of Fame Air Show a few years back. Seeing 5 flyable Lightnings and one static in one spot was amazing.

Growing up in Middlesboro, I remember seeing Glacier Girl flying overhead several times a year! It is something I will never forget!

The Forked Tail Devil still flies! Thanks to volunteers and lovers of high performance aircraft 👍♥️

I’ve heard of the story before, but didn’t know the details. Great work!

It was my grandfather who was the first to land on the glacier and flipped his P-38. Brad McManus.

Superb!!! That is one of my favorite WWII fighters but man, it would be scary to bail out of it, especially if you couldn’t safely invert it.

You're bringing back memories. My Dad and I visited her in Middlesboro in 1999, and later ,( before kids) my wife and I along with another couple went back on Oct. 26, 2002 to see her maiden flight, after restoration. "GG" stands out for a number of reasons, but one is...she only had 72.5 hrs. on her when Brad McManus belly landed her on that ice!...she was NEW, without any actual battle damage from dog-fighting. I was SO disappointed when I heard Rob Lewis had bought her, and would be taking her to Texas. Middleboro was ALOT closer, and Texas already had so many warbirds...the south-east had lost a big one. But that occurred a few years before Gerald Yagen's Military Aviation Museum came...now the south-eastern warbird lovers don't have as far to go! Now if only he can find and restore a P38 to add to his collection.😁

As a kid i loved to p38.....such a beautiful and graceful body.....i read books about the lost squadron and remember when the lost squad was located also remember when the ole bird was brought back up from the icy depths she had laid in for all those yrs.....and she has been returned to air worthyness just makes it all that much more amazing.....to bad they couldn't have retrieved more from the squadron...but atleast the squad was located and one of there birds has lived to fly another day.....only these days without being in a war theater......

The ball bearing company I use to work for actually restored the bearing for Glacier Girl. My mom and brothers were part of the restoration process of them

Truly an amazing piece of Warbird History. It is unfortunate, however, that the one that started the project lost out to Cardin to see this aircraft fly again. The bottom line is that she is flying again, which is amazing. It's too bad the rest of the aircraft couldn't be retrieved.

Hi this story made big news in Australia 🇦🇺 I watched it on Australian 60 minutes, loved it ,thank you for you had work great job mate

Traveled to Middlesboro Ky for my step mothers funeral, and while i was there i visited the small hangar Glacier Girl was being restored in. Used up a whole roll of film. Mayor of Middlesboro was Roy Shoffner at the time, and he funded the project. They were able to remove the air in the tires, and fill them back up with the original air they used in 1942. Roy stated that Glacier Girl was the oldest P-38 around today, and the most expensive, as over 6 million dollars has been spent on her recovery and restoration. Still have all the pictures i took back then.

Great video. Keep up the good work!👍

Had heard of this story before, pretty amazing... Interesting to note that after 50 years it got covered with 250 feet of ice... yeah the ice caps are melting for sure ;-)

I was able to see, touch and buy a piece of this plane just before it left Kentucky.

I was able to see her at hangar and got into the cockpit coolest thing ever

Great video & story 😎👌

I got to see this plane when it was at Middlesboro Ky.I couldn't believe how big it was for a fighter

Great video!

Amazing! Thanks

if all of those aircraft are at that area, and ONE of them were found, maybe the other 5 Lightnings and 2 b-17s could still be out there waiting to be digged up! idk thats my hunch still cool that Glacier girl was brought back and restored!

Early… Great video Keep up the good work TJ3 History

Thank you EPPS of Dekalb Peachtree Airport for retrieving the plane

From the glimpse of the monitors I can you are a true gamer.

That’s so cool

Again very good job.

So I thought because of the warmer climate of our industrial age, it would of thawed itself out but instead was buried in new ice of about 200 ft. 😄😄

Just a small geographical point. The "British Isles" is not a small group if islands "off the North West coast of England". The group of islands, including England, Scotland, Wales and several smaller islands, making up the United Kingdom, is referred to, as a whole, as The British Isles.

Let me get this straight - the glacier was “frozen”? Has this been verified? I need proof.

You should do a film on the b29 trapped similarly which was rebuilt only once ready to fly home caught on fire on takeoff and sank through the ice. . .

I had heard of this before but not in all the details. Great job. What about the B-29 Kee Bird?

Very coil. Good story

Great

6:56 See that propellor blade on top? That wasn't supposed to happen. Procedure for a belly landing calls out that you have to un-feather the props so the blades bend on impact-- a belly landing on feathered props cause them to dig into the ground and raises the risk of the engines being sheared off their mounts and spilling fuel. The pilot of this particular plane forgot to un-feather the props. It was for this reason this plane was singled out for recovery-- all the other planes had all their prop blades bent in the crash landing, but this one had two fully intact blades which could be recovered and traded off for their historical value.

They cut the propeller blades off one of the B-17's four engines so they could run the engine driven generator to power an HF radio in order to call for help. It worked.

Back in the late 90's I watched an archeology documentary on the flight and the start of the recovery of this aircraft - so hadn't seen the end of the story. They did tell that the first plane to land (wheels down) was flown by the pilot with fewest hours, his plane was lowest on fuel as he wasn't as well able to husband his fuel consumption, I believe he flipped the plane on landing and his circling comrades were relieved to see him crawl out from under the wing. The last plane to land was flown by the most experienced pilot, who had sufficient fuel to watch the others down, when he landed he feathered the engines, which reduced the propeller rotation, leaving the plane in the best condition - it was this plane that the recovery team managed to find, and when I saw the documentary, the one they were planning to recover. They also said that the plan was to restore the plane to flight worthiness and recreate the original mission, from the US to the UK.

“The British Isles, a small group of islands off the northwestern coast of England.” OMG! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Lovely beautiful.

Way COOL

That was Steve Hinton doing the functional test flight after the restoration.

I love a happy ending

At 0:26, "... would actually be discovered in a frozen glacier..." At 3:24, "Their specific destination was the British Isles, a small group of islands on the northwestern side of England..." ----------------- Who writes this stuff? All glaciers are frozen, even if they do move. And no, the British Isles is not a location to the northwest of England.

Now they know the area & depth they should hunt the others

The plane was pretty well crushed up when they finally got it out of the ice, so took many years and lots of money, to basically build a new one

The plane was so preserved that her ammo still worked.

Awesome story. What was the source of the funding to go to Greenland to dig up the plane? That had not been cheap I'm sure.

Did they leave the other planes behind in the ice? Are they still out there?

In point of order, the group of planes wasn't "on a mission", they were being ferried to England, and became lost in poor weather.

There’s 5 more down there. Why don’t they retrieve a few more for parts?

One word "Cool"

Actually they were àfter one of the B-17' s. They got to it and found it to be crushed by the ice, so they got one of the fighters instead.

("Sgt.J.") 👍.🍻🍻🍻☕☕✌️🕊️😁. Thanks. The documentaries are good.

The British Isles include Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, the Hebrides and Northern Isles. Basically the islands off north western mainland Europe.

What happened to the other P 38 aircraft on that flight, why was the “Glazier girl” the only one retrieved?

Wait what? I thought it took thousands of years to make 200 feet of glacial ice. LOL

I've got a model of this plane.

It looks a lot like the vampire

Sleeping under the ice for 50 years ,and than she made it back to the air again . Sounds a bit like a fairietale .

For a second I thought this was one of the Mark Felton's videos.

Can someone explained why it sank 200ft into the snow?

I wish Jeff Ethell could have lived to see that…

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Is this the one that burnt to a crisp after a group of people found it and fried to recover the plane

0:57 in other words you didn't actually read the source material

heart-warming - it would have been nice if the original pilot of the plane , if still alive , would have been able to reunite with his ' bird "

So well kept under the ice that some of the air was in still in the Tires when they recovered her....if airplanes could be chick flicks then glacier girl would definitely be a love story

I know of about 500-700 Lightnings that are in pits and was buried after the war at Clark Airfield/Airbase in the Philippines after Japan surrendered the US declared them obsolescent since they was twice the cost of a P-51 and 1/3rd the cost of a P-47 to produce and to operate, but that is to be expected as the P-38 had twice the engines and systems over the other two single engine fighters. But the USAAF had dozers and cables with hooks and just hooked 4-7 planes together and dragged them to the makeshift pits put in and when they was full, push dirt over top and buried.

Captain America but realistic

So, the ice melted and is now back to where the ice was 50 years ago? Climate keeps changing doesnt it.....

Capitan America is that you?

The democrats will have youtube pull these videos as soon as they learn the vids dont fit their narrative.