A highly-skilled team of aircraft conservationists has been tasked with restoring a Hawker Hurricane, the iconic fighter plane which played a key role in the Battle of Britain.

The skeletal shell of the Second World War aircraft, which was transported from the UK to Russia in 1942, has been delivered to Medway Aircraft Preservation Society’s (MAPS) workshop.

Little is known about its service in the Soviet Union but it returned to Britain in 2000 in a fragile condition and was put on display at Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight.

It has now been placed in capable hands of the MAPS experts at Rochester Airport who will be spending at least a year painstakingly restoring it to its former glory.

Their mission is to ensure it takes its rightful place in the history of the Royal Air Force and it will be on show in a prominent place yet to be disclosed.

The team of volunteers, largely made up of retired engineers and mechanics, has completed work on similar vintage craft, but this project is somewhat “confusing” because of the condition of the Hurricane.

Phil Cole, MAPS managing director, said: “We restored the Manston Hurricane which is now in the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum at Manston and also a Hurricane for the RAF Museum at Hendon.

“I think the chaps will be glad to get their hands on a warbird once again, especially one that fought for our freedom, even if it was in…