One of only two remaining airworthy Mk1 variants of the Vickers Submarine Spitfire is to auction at Christie's.
The lot is valued at £1.5m-2.5m ($2.2m-3.7m) ahead of the Exceptional Sale in London on July 9.
 The Spitfire is an iconic British fighter plane |
Its pilot, Peter Cazenove, reportedly radioed headquarters with the message "Tell mother I'll be home for tea!" shortly before crashing on a Calais beach in May 1940. He was captured by Axis forces soon afterwards.
The plane lay beneath the sands until 1980, when it was recovered. In the years since, it has undergone an extensive restoration by a team of engineers. It flew again for the first time in September 2011.
The consignor, Thomas Kaplan - an American billionaire who underwrote the restoration - plans to donate the proceeds from the sale to both the RAF Benevolent Fund and Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit.
Kaplan commented: "When my great childhood friend, Simon Marsh, and I embarked upon this project, it was to pay homage to those who Churchill called "the Few", the pilots who were all that stood between Hitler's darkness and what was left of civilization…
"The sale of P9374 for charity is likewise an opportunity to share that passion with others and to benefit causes that have moved me since boyhood…
"The RAF Benevolent Fund represents a way to honour that breed who gave so much for Britain when its existence was imperilled."
There are around 50 surviving Spitfires - few of which are airworthy.
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