An exhibit that any aviation museum worth its salt would like to lay its hands on is a World War II Fairey Swordfish biplane.
And this is precisely the plane that the Malta Aviation Museum has managed to acquire, following months of research and correspondence with Canadian aviation collector Bob Spence.
Ray Polidano, director general of the Aviation Museum Foundation, said the components making up the historic Swordfish - which need to be restored and re-assembled - would arrive here in mid-August.
"Mr Spence, who restored a Swordfish from three that he had bought from an auction, was impressed by the restoration work we did on a Hurricane we have at the museum, and offered to sell us the HS491, one of 12 remaining examples worldwide," Mr Polidano said proudly.
The Swordfish HS491, produced in February 1943 for the Royal Canadian Air Force, was dumped in a Canadian scrap yard after it was written off in 1946. Mr Spence bought it in the 1970s, cannibalising it to restore another Swordfish.
Mr Polidano said the aircraft's remains were purchased by the Malta Aviation Museum for 50,000 Canadian dollars, about Lm13,000, thanks to a hefty donation by David Dalton, a British aviation enthusiast.
The proceeds of a 1982 Cadillac donated by the late Charles Puglisevich, Honorary Consul General of Malta in Newfoundland, also went towards the purchase.
"The Swordfish we bought never operated in Malta. The third model ever produced in Britain however, the K5934, was delivered to the anti-aircraft cooperation unit in Malta, along with another good number of Swordfish planes that do not exist anymore.
"The planes operated mainly by night because of their remarkably low speed. Some were equipped with floats to operate from the water," Mr Polidano said.
Swordfish planes that took off from HMS Illustrious successfully attacked the Italian port of Taranto in November 1940, and their role in bombing Italian and German supply convoys bound for North Africa was vital throughout the war. The Swordfish was already considered obsolete by the time the war broke out.
The aircraft is also linked to the story of RAF pilot Syd Cohen who on June 12, 1943, mistakenly headed the wrong way while piloting his aircraft supposedly back to Malta.
The Swordfish had been searching for a downed German pilot and, short of fuel, landed on Lampedusa, then Italian territory. Waving white flags, 4,300 Italians promptly surrendered to the enemy made up of a single pilot.
In May 1941, a Swordfish launched from HMS Ark Royal struck the German battleship Bismarck's steering gear in the North Atlantic ocean. The German ship was sunk a day later by Royal Navy ships.
A German officer was reported to have said of this attack: "It was incredible to see such obsolete-looking planes having the nerve to attack a fire-spitting mountain like the Bismarck."