'Apparition' app lets RAF Cosford Museum's Dornier fly again
It is a pile of rusty metal, being lovingly restored at Shropshire's RAF Cosford Museum. But, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the World War Two Dornier bomber will fly again – over London's Trafalgar Square.
Visitors to museums all over the world will be able to see the plane, the last of its kind, hovering above the London landmark on their smartphone.
An app has been created in which people can recreate the wonder of the German bomber as it flies again.
The app, called Apparition: Dornier17, will be available to museum visitors to download from the App Store on October 16 and soon after on Android.
It has been created to coincide with the restoration of the Dornier at RAF Cosford and the planned opening of a new interactive exhibition at the museum.
Earlier this year, the Dornier Do 17 bomber was lifted from the sea, off Goodwin Sands in Kent, and was transported to the RAF Museum in Cosford for restoration.
The mobile phone app will allow visitors to view the plane in 3D.
It is hoped it will give people a taste of the scale and power of the plane.
Peter Dye, Royal Air Force Museums general director, said: "This heralds a new era of exhibition display and what museums can achieve.
"For the first time ever the same 3D exhibit is visible in defined physical sites around the world."
Visitors to the RAF Museums at Cosford will be offered the chance to download it from next Wednesday.
They will be able to see the Dornier in flight through the app as they watch the restoration work being carried out.
The historic plane has been in Cosford being restored since June, and has been on display in poly-tunnels as it is treated to bring the plane back to its former glory.
The app has been created following a £75,000 grant from war games publisher Wargaming and work with redLoop design and innovation centre.
Tracy Spaight, director of special projects at Wargaming, said: "Wargaming is delighted to be working with the RAF museum and its partners to develop an augmented reality application to bring history alive, and allow users to view the Dornier 17 bomber from locations around the world."
The app is also being publicised at other museums across the world, including Museo del Aire Madrid Spain, Warsaw Museum of Polish Military Technics Poland, War Museum Overloon The Netherlands.
Visitors to Canada Aviation and Space Museum and The Air Force Museum of New Zealand Museum, Pima Air & Space Museum/Arizona Aerospace Foundation will also be able to see the bomber plane on their phones to celebrate the launch of the exhibition.
