Dornier DO17 at Cosford today

[Cking]

For fathers day I was given a new DSL. Today I took it to The RAF Museum at Cosford to "Play" with it. Imagine my surprise when I saw a notice saying that the Goodwin sands Dornier was open to the public. It only arrived Saturday! Here are two pictures taken through plastic of it.





I wish them well with the conservation.

Rgds Cking

[bigapplebird]

Wow.., they have a LOT of work ahea of them

[Pat Carry]

Kool! How long will they have to apply water to the remains?

[Sopwith]

That's great, I shall look forward to seeing it .Thanks for posting the photos.

[Planebeach]

To get the salt out, they probably will have it in fresh water 2 to 3 years.

[Flying Pencil]

Thanks for posting!!

[Flying Pencil]

To get the salt out, they probably will have it in fresh water 2 to 3 years.

Actually, its Lemon Juice they are spraying it with.

[bdk]

Chemically, what does the lemon juice do? Does it merely leach the salts out or does it render the salt chemically inactive in some fashion?

[Flying Pencil]

Chemically, what does the lemon juice do? Does it merely leach the salts out or does it render the salt chemically inactive in some fashion?

I honestly don't know the details behind it;

However, ocean water is a little "Basic" (aka Alkali) due to presence of ions, Mg+2, (SO4)-2 and others.

Seawater pH is limited to the range 7.5 to 8.4.

On a pH scale, 7 is neutral, with 0 the most acidic and 14 the most basic. The historical pH of sea water is about 8.16, leaning on the basic side of the scale. While it doesn't seem like this is a problem, the pH of our oceans has fallen to 8.05 since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a change greater in magnitude than any time in the 650,000 years before the Industrial Revolution. The pH scale is also logarithmic, so that slight change in pH results in a 30 percent increase in acidity.

Some reading here
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 655AA970He

SO, a weak acid is needed to neutralize the basic sea water, and the salt free water washes away the salts. Citric is very common and environmentally safe, my guess.

FWIW

[C VEICH]

To get the salt out, they probably will have it in fresh water 2 to 3 years.

I read 18 months somewhere but I've no idea how reliable a source that number came from. Is it a matter of a set amount of time or do they just keep it submerged until the readings indicate that the task is complete?

[CoastieJohn]

Does this thing have a realistic chance of being restored?

[DaveM2]

Does this thing have a realistic chance of being restored?

Its not being restored, it is being conserved and will be displayed as found (assembled as far as possible).

Until the one in the Russian lake surfaces, this is all we have of a significant type.

[CoastieJohn]

Does this thing have a realistic chance of being restored?

Its not being restored, it is being conserved and will be displayed as found (assembled as far as possible).

Until the one in the Russian lake surfaces, this is all we have of a significant type.

So I read that as it's not restorable? Conserve/preserve would seem to be more realistic given what the pictures look like.

[Russ Matthews]

So I read that as it's not restorable? Conserve/preserve would seem to be more realistic given what the pictures look like.

Not so much that it's not restorable as that the RAF Museum never intended to restore/rebuild the Do17 in the first place. They stated from the very beginning that the goal was to stabilize/conserve the Dornier's remains and display them in original, "as found" condition.

As a last-of-type and a genuine artifact of the Battle of Britain, this approach (which will preserve as much of the historic structure as possible) would seem not only more realistic, but most desirable as well.

[Russ Matthews]

Until the one in the Russian lake surfaces, this is all we have of a significant type.

Do you have a specific lake/aircraft in mind .. or is that meant more as wishful thinking that one might still exist like some of the other amazing time capsules (P-39, Bf 109, Il-2, etc) found under similar conditions?