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Went to England to see a friend, and got involved with a 1942 Avro Lancaster.

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clockmanFRA:
One of these flying in England and one flying in Canada.

This one, 'Just Jane' NX611 manufactured in 1942 is undergoing works to get airworthiness cert.

My friend is ex RAF Analogue Avionics specialists, infact all the specialists restores on this project are mostly Ex Air Force, and yes all getting on in age. They are training apprentices.

After 2 and 1/2 years i manged to get from France to the UK with my COVID European passport and with out complicated and expensive test procedures.

My specialist field is horology and scientific instruments, but i come from the Museum world and not the commercial world.

Any way the 4 RR Merlins are okay, they have new wing tips and the wings and tail are good but the fuselage needs a great deal of work and probably completely remaking a new copy. The ally is old and has micro fractures.

Here is a few Pics i have.











Edited as actual age of manufacture was 1944-45. Sorry about that.



 

bigrockcandymountain:
The Lancaster is my favorite plane from ww2. The fighters get all the attention, but the heavies to me are just way more awe inspiring. 

My grandfather also spent part of 1945 in the mid upper turret on one so maybe that is part of my fascination.  I'm happy to see another flying restoration in the works.  I wish I could somehow get my hands on one to work on.  The machine age, before plastics and semiconductors was a golden era in my mind. 

Thanks for sharing. 

SparWeb:
Just south of Calgary is a town called Nanton, and their air museum has a Lancaster with running engines (though isn't airworthy).  The airworthy one is in Hamilton and I've paid it a visit, too.

Here's a photo from a past visit.  For scale, the boy in the photo is 6 feet 4 inches (1m 93cm) tall.  Today...  Maybe that photo was taken a long time ago. 
Sigh, they grow up so fast.

MattM:

--- Quote from: clockmanFRA on March 13, 2022, 02:09:57 PM ---Any way the 4 RR Merlins are okay, they have new wing tips and the wings and tail are good but the fuselage needs a great deal of work and probably completely remaking a new copy. The ally is old and has micro fractures.
--- End quote ---

Does the framing or skin have the fatigue?

mab:
IIRC when it was refused its CofA, i heard that the issue was that Lancasters had had an average life expectancy of about 2 week in use  - and so, quite sensibly, they built them with that in mind. I don't know but i was thinking the issues are with the frame as well as the skin - the skin would have been (relatively) easy to replace?

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