West Dean College students have been working on conserving a rare set of WWII propeller blades.
The propellers are thought to have been used with the legendary Lancaster, a Spitfire or anything with a Merlin engine.
Belonging to the Tangmere Aviation Museum, the 6 ft tall blades were discovered in the late 80s when they were dug up locally to the museum, almost 40 years after the Tangmere airfield was badly hit in an enemy air raid.
The Propellers recently made their way to West Dean College to undergo an extensive course of conservation.
West Dean is internationally acclaimed for excellence in conservation and offers an array of courses, both short and full time.
The project poses a rare and exciting opportunity for the Conservation department at West Dean College as very few of these propellers are still in use.
Jason Riches, curator at the Tangmere Aviation Museum said: There are only 25 Spitfires and two Lancaster aircrafts in the world still flying today.”
Norbert Gutowski, programme tutor for Conservation of Furniture and Related Objects, who is leading the project, has said: “To have any propellers for conservation here at West Dean is very exciting and quite out of the ordinary to what we normally accept and treat”.
The treatment goal is to ensure all components of the propellers are restored to a level of museum quality, with hope of going on display at Tangmere later this year.
They also aim to discover how and why these blades survived so well, despite being buried for 40 years.
Find out more about West Dean College by visiting the website at www.westdean.org.uk.
Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.
Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.
1) Make our website your homepage at www.chichester.co.uk/
2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChichesterObserver
3) Follow us on Twitter @Chiobserver
4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.
And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!
The Chichester Observer - always the first with your local news.
Be part of it.