The RAF Museum is using cutting edge digital technology to share its newly acquired exhibit – the Dornier Do17 bomber – with the world.
Using a specially developed Augmented Reality App called Apparition: Dornier17, a full scale, 3D vision of the aircraft will be visible in situ at various locations around the world.
In June the Museum successfully lifted the only known German Dornier Do17 bomber, from the waters of the Goodwin Sands, three miles off the coast of England. The event was a media phenomenon with viewers across the globe tuned in to watch it happen live.
A grant of £75,000 for exhibition development from Wargaming has allowed the Museum to work with redLoop design and innovation centre to develop a brand new method of exhibiting Museum artefacts. The creation of the ‘Wargaming.net Interpretation Zone’ has been funded by Wargaming, an award winning global game publisher and developer.
From 16th Oct 2013, visitors to the Museum sites at London and Cosford will be able to see a fully restored, 3D, full scale, augmented reality Dornier. Visitors will be able to view this through their smart phones via the ‘Apparition: Dornier17’ app.
Apparition: Dornier17 will be able for free download from the Apple App store from 16th Oct and soon after will be available on Android.
Furthermore the Museum has also tied in with organisations across the globe including; Museo del Aire Madrid Spain, Warsaw Museum of Polish Military Technics Poland, War Museum Overloon The Netherlands. Great Horwood C of E Combined School England, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, The Air Force Museum of New Zealand Museum plus the Pima Air & Space Museum/Arizona Aerospace Foundation to celebrate the launch of the exhibition. Visitors to those Museums will also be able to see the augmented reality Dorniers through their smart phones, hovering in situ.
“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. Said, Tracy Spaight, Director of Special Projects, Wargaming. One of the challenges museums face is how to reach a younger generation, a demographic that author Mark Prensky called ‘digital natives’. Young people are used to interacting with content in ways that museums are only just beginning to explore. Wargaming.net is pushing the envelope to create interactive experiences that will help enrich our historical understanding and bring a new generation to museums.”
Royal Air Force Museum Director General, Peter Dye: 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.”
redLoop Director, Dr Andy Bardill: “We are now living in the science fiction future, described by William Gibson, where we can create virtual 3D objects that people can look at, walk around and explore in physical spaces or in their own home using commonly available smartphones and tablets. We have used this technology to bring the Dornier17 back to life and it clearly has immense potential for augmenting museum collections.”
RAF MoD press release
