Wing Commander Adrian Warburton disappeared in April 1944 when he took off from an Oxfordshire air base to photograph German airfields.

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: "It is definitely Warburton and his next-of-kin, which is his nephew, has been informed."

The 26-year-old was one of Britain's most famous wartime pilots and his exploits were the inspiration for the 1953 film "The Malta Story" staring Alec Guinness as the pilot.

'Never failed'

The German magazine Focus said Warburton's remains were found in the village of Egling an der Paar, about 30 miles north east of Munich.

Warburton's reconnaissance missions over the Mediterranean made a key difference in the Allied advance in North Africa and Italy.

His pictures made possible the attack which sank an Italian fleet at Taranto in November 1940, described as "a crippling blow" by Winston Churchill.

On the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) awarded to Warburton it said "this officer has never failed".

Mystery solved

The pilot was also awarded an American DFC by President Roosevelt.

The discovery of the remains came about after a Welsh aviation researcher read a biography of Warburton and set out to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

Frank Dorber matched US missing-in-action reports with German anti-aircraft battery records and narrowed it down to Egling, southern Germany, where an Allied plane was shot down on 12 April, 1944.

American military tests had concluded the remains found next to a wrecked Lockheed F-5 Lightning belonged to the missing pilot.

There are plans for an official burial in May, 2003, in a soldier's cemetery at the nearby Tegernersee lake, 30 miles south of Munich.