"The Little Prince" Author's fate revealed. Mystery, sadly, solved.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

He was shot down by the Luftwaffe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7300489.stm

A former Luftwaffe fighter pilot may have ended the 64-year-old mystery surrounding the death of French writer and aviator, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

The author of The Little Prince disappeared during a wartime aerial reconnaissance mission in July 1944.

In 2004, wreckage from his plane was found off the coast of Marseilles, but there was no indication of how he died.

Now former German pilot Horst Rippert says he fears he may have shot down the author - though he cannot be sure.

There are many fans of his creation on the SDMB.

I hope this offers closure to them.

[lizardling]

Wow. Thank you for passing that link on. I kind of want to go buy myself another copy of The Little Prince.

[Dewey_Finn]

See this MPSIMS thread.

[Quartz]

Colour me doubtful: wouldn’t a reconnaisance plane have been flying at high altitude?

[sturmhauke]

@Quartz

Colour me doubtful: wouldn’t a reconnaisance plane have been flying at high altitude?

According to Wikipedia, Saint Exupéry flew a P-38 when he was shot down. Rippert was part of Jagdgruppe 200, which according to this site (in German) consisted of Messerschmidt 109s. P-38s have a ceiling of 44,000 feet, while Bf-109s have a ceiling of 39,370 feet. So it’s not impossible for Rippert to have shot down Saint Exupéry, especially if Rippert caught him unawares while he was ascending or descending from his recon altitude.