Effort To Bring Up Dornier

[Friar]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22414584

[SkyPup]

Nice find, Friar.  The video showed the aircraft flipping over on ditching....I wonder if the crew made it out?

[fruitbat]

Its not far from me. The salvage operation is being run from Ramsgate (7 miles away), and if it comes in to there I will defiantly be going down to have a look.

[Jabo]

Apparently this aircraft will form the centerpiece of the new building planned for the RAF museum at Hendon. It will be displayed in an 'as found' condition

 

Jabo

[Jabo]

@ SkyPup, one of the other BBC films on the subject reported that two of the crew drowned and were eventually washed up on the coast and two were captured.

 

Jabo

[SkyPup]

Thanks Jabo.  Interesting bit of history!

[Painless]

~S~ Friar,

 

Looks to be in a very recognisable condition. Perhaps Revell will build a 32nd scale one now to join the Ju88 and He111 in their 32nd BoB series : )

 

~S~ P.

[Jabo]

Indeed it is Mick, it's also the only substantially complete Do17 in existance.

 

Quite a coup for Hendon although it will be several years before it will be on show anywhere.Desalination alone is likely to take 5 years and stabilising the airframe quite a while after that.

[rox]

This is really excellent, Fruitbat you better take some pictures when they reel it in if you're there.

[rox]

Apparently this aircraft will form the centerpiece of the new building planned for the RAF museum at Hendon. It will be displayed in an 'as found' condition

 

Ah so it will be upside down.

[fruitbat]

i hope they don't go quite that realistic!

[FoolTrottel]

Yeah, think of all the salt water in the museum, that would kind wreck it all, wouldn't it?

[rox]

http://news.sky.com/story/1098476/dornier-attempt-to-raise-aircraft-called-off
 
 

A first attempt to raise the last surviving World War Two German Dornier aircraft from the English Channel has been postponed.
Divers had hoped to begin the lift around 9pm on Sunday evening but the wind and the swell below water was too strong and they decided not to risk it.
It is unlikely that any attempt will be made this week because of the weather, a spokesman for the RAF Museum, where the aircraft is eventually due to be displayed, said.
Ajay Srivastava added that another try to bring the aircraft to the surface would commence as soon as conditions improved.
The original plan, designed by Seatech, a commercial diving company, was to build an aluminium frame around the wreck and then lift it gently out of the water.
 



A member of the recovery team holds part of the plane from an earlier dive
 

The cage frame was designed to spread the pressure on the fragile shell and give it additional support.

But recent rough seas have meant the salvage barge and giant crane have had to seek refuge in Ramsgate, Kent, four times, thereby delaying the project and risking massive overspend.

If the operation is delayed another year, the chances are there would be little left of the aircraft.

A team of experts from Seatech have lived on a barge for the past month, diving daily, sometimes four times a day.

The new plan involves attaching cables to the aircraft. A steel rod running between the bomb door and tail section will add additional support.

The wings of the plane will now experience increased pressure as they are pulled up through the water.

The budget for the project is around £600,000 for 35 days of work funded in part by charitable donations to the RAF Museum which commissioned the project and will take ownership of the plane once recovered.

The Dornier 17 was shot down on August 26, 1940.

It crash landed on Goodwin Sands, around six miles off the Kent coast.

It has laid there ever since, covered by sand.

Once it is eventually out of the water the plane will be put on a barge and taken to shore, then transported to the Sir Michael Beetham Conservation Centre in Shropshire for restoration.

Its final destination will be the RAF Museum in North London where it will go on display alongside other aircraft from the Battle of Britain.

 

When I read that this article is posted on the website Sky News I thought to myself "wow, a news site about aviation, cool" until it hit me that this is the "ordinary" Sky News.