A German bomber shot down during the Battle of Britain 70 years ago is to be raised from the seabed and displayed in a museum.
The twin-engined Dornier 17 crashed on Goodwin Sands off the coast of Deal, Kent, on August 26, 1940.
Its remains were discovered in 2008 when a full archaeological survey of the area produced remarkable underwater images of the wreck.
Now the RAF Museum in Hendon, North London, has launched an appeal to raise £600,000 to salvage the bomber and exhibit it as part of the Battle of Britain Beacon project.
Steve Webster, of Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology which discovered the wreck, said the project to lift the plane is likely to start next Spring.
He said: 'We are currently going through a process of appointing an engineering company to effect the lift. Crane and cradle is by far the preferred option.
The Dornier 17 - known as a Flying Pencil due to its sleek design - was shot down with 2,000lbs of bombs on its way to attack airfields in Essex.
It was part of a large formation of enemy aircraft intercepted by RAF Defiant fighters 13,000 feet above the English Channel.
Pilot Willi Effmert attempted an emergency landing on the Sands but it is believed a wing clipped the water and it landed upside down.
Effmert and his observer were captured whilst the two other crew died in the crash. The aircraft has lain on the seabed ever since.
It is largely intact with its main undercarriage tyres inflated and its propellers still showing the damage they suffered during its final landing.
Divers claimed they knew the location of the wreck but it was only confirmed in 2008 by geophysical work undertaken by Wessex Archaeology, which was surveying shipwrecks in the area.
A full survey of the wreck site will be completed before the exhibition will take place at the RAF's museum at Hendon.
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