Posted on 04/08/2011 2:04:41 PM PDT by Evil Slayer
LONDON (Reuters) – A rare World War Two German bomber, shot down over the English Channel in 1940 and hidden for years by shifting sands at the bottom of the sea, is so well preserved a British museum wants to raise it.
The Dornier 17 -- thought to be world's last known example -- was hit as it took part in the Battle of Britain.
It ditched in the sea just off the Kent coast, southeast England, in an area known as the Goodwin Sands.
The plane came to rest upside-down in 50 feet of water and has become partially visible from time to time as the sands retreated before being buried again.
Now a high-tech sonar survey undertaken by the Port of London Authority (PLA) has revealed the aircraft to be in a startling state of preservation.
Ian Thirsk, from the RAF Museum at Hendon in London, told the BBC he was "incredulous" when he first heard of its existence and potential preservation.
"This aircraft is a unique aeroplane and it's linked to an iconic event in British history, so its importance cannot be over-emphasized, nationally and internationally," he said.
"It's one of the most significant aeronautical finds of the century."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In all, some 1,700 were produced but they struggled in the war with a limited range and bomb load capability and many were scrapped afterwards.
Striking high-resolution images appear to show that the Goodwin Sands plane suffered only minor damage, to its forward cockpit and observation windows, on impact.
"The bomb bay doors were open, suggesting the crew jettisoned their cargo," said PLA spokesman Martin Garside.
Two of the crew members died on impact, while two others, including the pilot, were taken prisoner and survived the war.
"The fact that it was almost entirely made of aluminum and produced in one piece may have contributed to its preservation," Garside told Reuters.
The plane is still vulnerable to the area's notorious shifting sands and has become the target of recreational divers hoping to salvage souvenirs.
The RAF museum has launched an appeal to raise funds for the lifting operation.
Flying pencil.What a cool find.I hope they can raise it and put it on display for the muzzies uh I mean the citizens of england.
Leave it. It’s exactly where it belongs. Kudos to the pilot who decided to put it there.
Don’t judge them too harsly, the DO17 and the Heinkel 111 are two good reasons the Germans lost the war. Without the heavy bombers Hitler needed to really carry a load and have the range to bomb Russia they allowed Russia to move her factories out of range of the medium bombers and so were able to continue production. Also, without the huge loads a heavy bomber could carry England was saved from even further destruction, plus it was harder to escort the mediums, since they had very little fire power of their own.
When I was in Nova Scotia last summer there was a Do-17 sitting in pieces just off the grass runway.
I hope it was Polish pilots that shot the plane down.
A mistake that Germans came to regret quite profoundly.
Yep, those T34s just kept coming off the assembly line, not to mention a sh** load of Stumovicks.
What is a Stumovicks
It’s a vapor rub you apply to invading Nazis.
Sturmovik, singular, Sturmoviks, plural. It was the Russian ground attack plane. It was tough, heavily armored and well armed and most of them carried a rear gunner. They were known as the black death to the Germans. They knocked out many, many tanks and were very difficult for the German fighters to shoot down.
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