Tony – I don’t think its an issue of recovering it -I think the issue has always been that the aircraft has been somewhat portrayed to maybe be a little better than it will be! Certainly the major benefactors of the project might not mind that but we have to be aware that it won’t be the preservationists criticising the project -more likely the media if
what comes up bears little resemblance to a Dornier !
But this is the risk with an such recovery. Such an argument would have been as valid prior to the recovery of the Mary Rose.
Anything is so much harder underwater and the true state of the Dornier won’t be accurately known until it is out of the water. Until there all that can be done is peering at the wreck through water of variable visibility and testing small samples brought up before that might or might not be representative of the state of the wreck as a whole. As for the media; yes a greater or lesser part will throw citicism at anything that does go wrong and that cannot be helped, but the RAFM has wisely steered away from the hype that set up the Burma spitfires for such a big fall.
As for the type itself -I would be more than happy if the aircraft was donated to the Germans. I feel they have the skills base – financing and far more interest in the type as a nation. It is not a key machine in the remit of the RAF museum.
This wreck would be relevent to most European countries as the Do-17Z was a widely used aircraft by the Axis. But as an aircraft that was used against us in ‘our darkest hour’ I would have throught that it would have particular significance to the UK and would be a fine addition to the other ‘enemy’ aircraft in the RAFM’s collection (that I will assume you will not argue are not in the museum’s remit too).
Is there a reason why you seem to be saying that there is no backlog of aircraft restorations in Germany, or that aircraft restoration skill in the UK is lacking?
In terms of restoration – it is a distraction in the workload of the RAFM . I don’t foresee a massive increase in funding to the RAFM so maybe another aircraft in the restoration queue at Cosford and Stafford will be pushed to one side – such as the Ventura which has been stored for thirty years already.
As for the Hampden -sadly after twenty years the odds of any surviving RAF aircrew seeing it on display at Hendon gets narrower by the day – whilst not a fault of the Dornier
is a clear indication of the level of workload and the timescale of getting things done.
I would much rather that an aircraft that is in safe hands already is held off for restoration by a few of years than one, a unique survivior of a once common type, is left out to be rusted, drag-netted and robbed to oblivion. And while I think that few if any here would disagree that the RAFM shouldn’t get extra funding -and any disscussion of where that should come from is for another day- there are more reasons than ‘we ran short of money’ for why a restoration like the hampden might be put on hold.
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