Prince William on Thursday inspected a rare Spitfire plane gifted to a British museum by a US philanthropist on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain aerial campaign by Nazi Germany. Gold investor Thomas Kaplan also donated the proceeds from a Christie’s auction on Thursday of a second Mark I Spitfire he owned to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and Panthera, a wildlife charity. The two planes — the earliest models of Spitfire — both crashed on French beaches during the battle of Dunkirk in 1940 and sank into the sand. They were recovered and are now the only two of those models in existence that can still fly, following a painstaking restoration lasting years. Some spare parts were bought on eBay from the descendants of air force veterans who had kept them as mementoes of World War II. The Spitfire donated to the museum took

Read More: Britain receives Spitfire gifts from Unites States Gold investor Thomas Kaplan