9:20am Monday 6th September 2010
By Alex Hayes
A NAZI bomber is set to be restored 70 years after being shot down on a raid over Britain.
The Dornier 17, known as the Flying Pencil, was forced to perform a no-wheels landing in Goodwin Sands, Kent, on August 26, 1940, after an attack by RAF fighters.
Now staff from the RAF Museum in Hendon are working to help conserve the plane before it is fully extracted from the sandbank.
It will eventually form the centrepiece of the recently announced Battle of Britain Beacon project.
Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, director general of the RAF Museum, said: “The discovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance.
“The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain. It is particularly significant because, as a bomber, it formed the heart of the Luftwaffe assault and the subsequent Blitz.”
The museum along with English Heritage and the Ministry of Defence are working on the recovery plan, although there are concerns some parts may have been pilfered from the Essex site.
More information on the recovery plan will be provided at the Battle of Britain weekend at the Grahame Park Road museum next week.
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