AIRCRAFT from the Yorkshire Air Museum will represent the British Air Services at an international commemoration this summer.

The museum's AVRO 504 will help mark the international centenary of the Battle of the Somme in France on July 1, at the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy, northern France.

The air museum, at Elvington, has recently been acknowledged by the European Union as The Allied Air Forces Memorial, and has been invited by the Government to display the AVRO biplane fighter and exhibition, to represent the hundreds of Royal Flying Corps pilots who took part in the battle.

The Battle of the Somme saw 57,000 British soldiers killed or wounded in one day, and by the end of the Somme Offensive on November 18, 1916, more than one and a quarter million British, French and German soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured.

During the battle, the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service lost over 800 aircraft. Pilots and aircrew were not issued with parachutes at this time and many died while the aircraft were used as bombers and for reconnaissance.

Ian Reed, museum director, said: "The Allied Air Forces Memorial & Yorkshire Air Museum is deeply honoured to have been invited to represent the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Services on the launch day of the Commemorations of the Battle of the Somme, in France – we owe a great debt to those young men of 1916."

The AVRO has an 11-metre wingspan, and is made from wood and canvas, similar to other serving aircraft at the time. The museum will transport it and an exhibition unit carefully by lorry to Hull Docks and by North Sea ferry, through Belgium and into Picardy, where the aircraft will be rebuilt onsite by eight museum staff. The journey is also expected to be filmed by a television crew.

On its return from France, the AVRO will form part of a First World War display, which will include a three more aircraft from the conflict and information boards on the history of air services during the Great War.