Historic Lancasters' tandem flight takes place in Lincolnshire

Historic Lancasters' tandem flight takes place in Lincolnshire

Well here I am again, having survived a second week at the Temple of Mammon (I'd love to write this blog as a full-time job but would struggle to make it pay, I'm afraid!), with the exciting vintage news of the moment - the arrival of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Avro Lancaster in Britain!  The only other airworthy example in the world after the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's City Of Lincoln, C-GVRA Vera (or FM213, the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster) has joined its sister in the UK for a month-long series of displays - the first time two Lancasters will have been in the air together for over 50 years.

As reported earlier in the year Vera was flown across the Atlantic Ocean in stages before landing at RAF Coningsby, the home of the BBMF and its Lanc.  Having undergone various post-flight checks and practice formations, it has now begun being displayed around the country in the company of the British example

source

  
Following a departure display for the press at Coningsby (with the planned flyover of Lincoln Cathedral on the 13th sadly postponed because of bad weather) the Lancs spent this weekend at Airbourne, the Eastbourne International Airshow in Sussex, plus several other displays around the south-east.  Over the next month they will appear at various events around the country, including Duxford, Shoreham and Goodwood - plus two special invitation-only events at Humberside International Airport in Kirmington, Lincolnshire.  I'm also delighted to note that, as I'd hoped, the pair will go to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre where a third powered Lancaster - Just Jane - is based and perform a fly-past while Jane does a taxi run.  What an image that will be, I'm sure!

source

A full list of the planned displays is available on the CWHM's website - I hope there's one near you?  Clacton's probably my nearest, although it's on a weekday so I'm unlikely to make it ;(.  Perhaps Duxford, we shall have to see.  Or I could just camp out in my parents' garden since the flippin' things flew over them yesterday(!), no doubt on the way back from one of the Kent shows.

At any rate, the press is rightly making a big thing out of this once-in-a-lifetime event and there is bound to be more coverage as the month goes on.  It really is quite an amazing sight to see these two four-engined monsters in the air together, made all the more poignant by the thought of how much they represent - the 125,000 pilots who flew in RAF Bomber Command during World War Two and the 55,000 who did not return, plus the 7,300 Avro Lancasters that were built between 1942 and 1945 of which only 17 survive today.  It is a fitting homage to all these men and machines that these two aircraft should fly together again, as the veterans' comments prove.  I hope in their appearances around the country they will inspire and enthral onlookers and remind each generation of the sacrifices their vanished comrades made, and that this will not be the last time two or more Lancasters are seen in the air together at one time.

Lancaster bombers to fly together on UK summer tour

Lancaster bombers to fly together on UK summer tour

More Bomber Command commemoration news now, and this one is exciting almost beyond words (well, I'll try anyway)!

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight has been thrilling airshow crowds and remembrance parades around the country for decades and the undisputed jewel in its crown is the Avro Lancaster bomber PA474.  Joining the Flight in 1973 it has become a much-loved feature; one of only two airworthy examples left in the world it is highly valued in its own right.

source
Avro Lancaster Mk X FM213 "Mynarski Memorial"
of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

The other Lanc in flying condition - FM213 - performs a similar office for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Ontario, having been rescued from the scrapheap by The Royal Canadian Legion in 1978 (and restored to airworthiness by 1988).  A familiar sight on the North American display circuits the Canadian-built FM213 was, like PA474, completed just too late to see service in World War II - spending 20 years with the RCAF's Maritime Air Command Search & Rescue division.

Canada's Lancaster bomber to cross Atlantic for U.K. tour

source
Avro Lancaster B I PA747 "City of Lincoln" of the BBMF

Now in a series of special one-off events FM213 and PA474 are scheduled to meet in the skies of Britain this summer in what is rightly being billed as a "once-in-a-lifetime event".  For the first time in 60 years two Avro Lancasters will fly together over two weeks in August (including, I note, my birthday - hmmnn, now there's an idea...!).

The CWHM will fly its Lancaster, in stages, across the Atlantic to meet up with the BBMF at RAF Coningsby.  That in itself is more than worthy of comment, since a Lancaster has not undertaken an Atlantic crossing since 1975 and we should remember that we are talking about a near 70-year-old machine here!  Just that flight alone will be testament to the aircraft's durability and the hard work of the museum engineers who work strenuously to keep this wonderful aeroplane flyable (the same can be said, of course, for PA474 and the BBMF).

source
Avro Lancaster B VII NX611 "Just Jane"
of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre

Once FM213 has made it across and is checked over a number of displays and events are planned for that second fortnight in August.  Flypasts with the BBMF will commence on the 14th August with a series of as-yet unspecified shows to follow.  A tour of the country seems to be suggested; hopefully we shall know more nearer the time.  A visit to the taxiing Lanc undergoing restoration in Lincolnshire, perhaps (three of them, albeit on the ground, would surely be a sight to see)?  Hopefully a show near you will see both bombers in the air together.  Furthermore if you live near the Humberside Airport and have £3,500 going spare you can even pay to have a flight in one of the Lancasters (£7,000 for a cockpit seat), which are due to take place on the 18th-20th and 26th-27th August.

All-in-all then this sounds like an absolutely amazing opportunity and a fantastic way to commemorate the numerous martial anniversaries that abound this year (WWI 100th, WWII 75th, Bomber Command etc.).  I very much hope to get a chance to see the two Lancs in formation together some time, somewhere, this August.  Watch and listen to the footage at the top of this post, then try to imagine two (or even three if NX611 is involved!) instead of one - what a beautiful sight (and sound!) that will be!

Bomber Command centre to 'echo' Lancaster shape

Bomber Command centre to 'echo' Lancaster shape

Readers may be familiar with the memorial to RAF Bomber Command that was unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II in Green Park, London, a couple of years ago.  Until then there had been no official memorial to the bomber crews who died during the Second World War.  Now there is soon to be a second - as well as the first museum devoted to that arm of the RAF - in Lincoln, to further honour the men of Bomber Command.

source

Both edifices look to be magnificent.  The monument - to be called the "Spire of Names" - will tower 164ft into the sky and feature the 25,000+ names of every bomber airman from Lincolnshire who perished in the conflict.  Sitting on Lincoln's Canwick Hill it will overlook the nearby Lincoln Cathedral, which was well-known to locally-based bomber pilots as both a navigation aid and a welcome sight upon returning to base.  Recently the Spire project was given an anonymous £750,000 donation, allowing it to go ahead.

As detailed in the main article, the nearby visitor centre has been ingeniously designed to resemble the outline of an Avro Lancaster bomber, that most famous mainstay of RAF bomber squadrons.  It is also set be named The Chadwick Centre, after Avro's chief designer Roy Chadwick.

All this adds up to an excellent and beautiful form of remembrance for all the brave men of the RAF Bomber Command, as well as those at the Avro works and doubtless many more local and national war heroes to boot.  I'm sure it will be a credit to Lincoln and all the airmen who gave their lives in service to their country.

Lancaster bomber roars over Worcestershire as part of Defford Airfield Heritage Weekend

source

Lancaster bomber roars over Worcestershire as part of Defford Airfield Heritage Weekend

I've mentioned before how indebted this blog is to the news feeds & alerts that I'm signed up to in helping me to find vintage news and events near and far and this article is a classic example.

"A picture of a Lanc, and a Heritage Weekend?  I'll have a look at that", I thought to myself - with an eye to putting it on here - when the e-mail alert popped into my inbox yesterday.  And I was not disappointed as I read the splendid article to see the few remaining RAF Bomber Command servicemen who served at RAF Defford gathered together to share memories, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Avro Lancaster gracing the event with a few flypasts over the gorgeous Worcestershire countryside and the whole weekend generally being a rip-roaring success.  It's always heartwarming to see such an important piece of history as the the sole airworthy Lancaster in Britain appearing at events like these and it all certainly seems to have given a well-deserved boost to the new Defford Airfield Museum.

Then I clicked through the accompanying pictures.  Got to the fifth one.  Hang on a minute, that's...!  (Imagine me now doing a double take, taking off my glasses, squinting, putting them back on again etc.)  Yes, fellow blogger Tickety Boo Tupney was in attendance, suitably and immaculately dressed as ever and no doubt helping to lend the event an authentic 1940s air.

So this news item that I might otherwise have missed ends up having it all - a popular Heritage Weekend, pleasant scenery, a Lancaster bomber and another vintage blogger - and earns a place on Eclectic Ephemera!

Pensioners restore rare WWII bomber

Pensioners restore rare WWII bomber

While preparations continue for the excavation and repatriation of a number of Spitfires, which may eventually lead to a doubling of airworthy examples, in a small corner of Lincolnshire work continues on increasing the flyable examples of another famous Second World War aircraft - the Avro Lancaster bomber.

Currently only two of the surviving 17 Lancaster airframes are airworthy.  One is of course PA474 City of Lincoln - better known as the mainstay of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight  - the other is owned and operated by a museum in Canada.  More are in the process of being restored at various locations around the world - in France, Canada and the U.S.A.  Looking most likely to make it back into the air first though is NX611 Just Jane, which has been the star attraction at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre since it was opened in 1988.  The story of how the museum came in to being and how the Lanc was obtained is explained briefly in the accompanying B.B.C. article and in greater detail here.

Source: earlscroftfarm.co.uk via Bruce on Pinterest

Lancaster bomber to fly as tribute to a lost brother

Suffice to say it has obviously been a labour of love for the two owner brothers - who must have been moved in ways we can only imagine to set the whole thing up - and the team who have spent the last 25 years getting Just Jane back to near-original condition.  So close are they to fulfilling their dream that they can already offer taxi runs to paying customers but now thanks to donations they have been able to purchase four "new" Merlin engines that should, all things being well, allow the aircraft to be deemed officially airworthy!

With Just Jane on the brink of returning to the skies and 30-odd Spitfires about to be dug out of the Burmese soil 2013 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for these special aircraft.  Whether there will be two Lancs in the air in time for the 70th anniversary of the famous "Dam Busters" raid in May remains to be seen but that these aircraft will get the chance to fly again and continue to thrill and educate new generations is wonderful news indeed.

Britain's first seaplane to fly again as enthusiasts make replica of Waterbird

Images courtesy of flyingmachines.ru

Britain's first seaplane to fly again as enthusiasts make replica of Waterbird

I have "Richard Hannay" of the excellent blog Electric Edwardians to thank for making me aware of this fantastic article.  His site is a wonderful resource of pictures and information about the buildings, machines and related occurrences during the 1910s.

One hundred years ago, less than a decade after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, British aviation pioneers A. V. Roe (later to become Avro, creator of the Lancaster and Vulcan bombers amongst others) became the first company in the United Kingdom to successfully build and fly a seaplane - the A. V. Roe Curtiss-type "Waterbird".

Now I'm very pleased to see that local aviation enthusiasts have not only marked the centenary of the first flight at Lake Windermere on the 25th November 1911, but also intend to build a replica of the Waterbird and actually fly it!  To see such an important landmark in British aviation remembered in this fashion is splendid and everyone involved is to be congratulated - I hope the necessary funds to finish the aircraft are forthcoming.  It is indeed a good thing that this early trailblazing flight is not forgotten and is appreciated by a new generation and what better way to ensure that than with a working, flying example of the machine.  It would be a wonderful sight to see the Waterbird take to the skies - and the water - again, a century after its first foray across Windermere.  Best of luck, chaps!

RAF Lyneham's Vulcan Cold War bomber is saved

RAF Lyneham's Vulcan Cold War bomber is saved

I wrote recently about the Avro Vulcan bomber and in particular XH558, the last airworthy example. There has been much concern in aeronautical circles recently that a lack of funding for the volunteer trust would lead to it being grounded indefinitely but I am overjoyed to see that a supremely generous philanthropist has stepped into the breach and donated the money necessary to keep this amazing machine flying. Well done to you sir, whoever you may be!

It is important that these fantastic technological achievements are kept functioning and not just relegated to the corner of a dusty museum. They are so much more exciting when seen doing what they were designed to do, rather than sitting impotently on an airfield apron. A whole new generation of pilots, engineers and designers can now be inspired to create and fly ever more wondrous machinery, should they ever be lucky enough to see this incredible machine in the air.

Snow tips North East Air Museum's Vulcan bomber skyward

Snow tips North East Air Museum's Vulcan bomber skyward

The perils of parking a delta-winged aeroplane outside in the snow are made apparent in this amusing little piece. It serves as an interesting reminder as to just how heavy snow can be in large quantities, that there was enough of it to cause this 83,500lb bomber to tilt upwards. With luck this particular example will have sustained no lasting damage; the real danger, as mentioned, is when the snow melts and it returns to its normal position. They look to have it well in hand, though, and I'm sure everything is tickety-boo now.


A fantastic aircraft, the Vulcan, and I was lucky enough to see one flying as a child (there is now only one airworthy example - XH558 - probably the same one I saw all those years ago, as it was the sole flying display aircraft until 1993. Mothballed after this date, it only returned to the skies in 2007 courtesy of the Vulcan To The Sky Trust). My abiding memories of it were the way it seemed to block out the sky and the almighty noise it made! I can still remember my chest seemingly vibrating as it flew over us. An iconic machine.