Researchers develop cleaning method to save World War II bomber from corrosion

摘要

Researchers from Imperial College London (United Kingdom) are donating their time and scientific expertise to help the Royal Air Force Museum (Cosford, United Kingdom) save a World War II German light bomber aircraft from the corrosiveeffects of seawater. The airplane, the world's only surviving Dornier Do-17 (known as the Flying Pencil), has been underwater in the English Channel off the United Kingdom's coast of Kent since it was shot down on August 26, 1940 during the Battle of Britain. The wreckage, which is largely intact in spite of its crash landing and subsequent submersion in the sea for more than 70 years, was discovered in 2008 after a winter storm shifted the sands that were covering the aircraft. Currently the plane is lying inverted in a small debris field on a chalk bed at a depth of 16 m in the shallows off the Goodwin Sands. Previously protected from constant exposure to the salt water by layers of sediment, the remains are now uncovered and vulnerable to corrosion from the coast's tidal waters. The museum, working with underwater archaeologists and recovery experts, plans to recover the aircraft from the sea sometime during the spring of 2012 when weather conditions are permissible, and transfer it to the museum's conservation facility at Cosford where it will be prepared for display.