Researchers have located a German Dornier 17 “Flying Pencil” bomber shot down during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It is buried in a sandbank about 50 feet below the surface in the English Channel off of the British coast, according to press reports. The RAF Museum in London issued a statement, acknowledging the find and revealing that the aircraft appears to be “very well preserved” based on sonar scans. Efforts are now planned to retrieve the bomber for the museum’s Battle of Britain gallery. The aircraft was reportedly discovered when a fishing boat snagged its nets on it. (See FoxNews report and Toronto Sun report.)
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.