On July 15, 1942, Lieutenant Harry Smith belly-landed this P-38 Lightning on a Greenland ice cap during Operation Bolero — the mass ferry of American aircraft to England. An unexpected storm forced the entire flight down. All crew were rescued. The aircraft were left behind.
Nobody expected to see them again.
Fifty years later, a recovery expedition located the Lost Squadron under 268 feet of glacial ice — the glacier had moved, the snow had compressed, and what had been a landing on the surface was now almost 30 stories underground. Glacier Girl, construction number 5757, was excavated using a hot-water melting system that carved a tunnel straight down through the ice. It took years. The aircraft that came out the other end was remarkably intact.
Ten years of meticulous restoration followed at Middlesboro, Kentucky. On October 26, 2002 — sixty years after her forced landing — she flew again. She remains one of only a handful of airworthy P-38 Lightnings in the world, and she is the only member of the Lost Squadron ever recovered and returned to flight.
Four .50 caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon in the nose. Construction number 5757 stenciled on the fuselage. Still flying today.