[Leica] Visiting the Avro Lancaster at the Warplane Museum in Hamilton, Ontario

[Howard Cummer]

Hi Don,
They flew the Lanc to the UK several years ago to participate in the Fly-by for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee along with the Duxford Lanc.
A propellor blade was split in the voyage and the aircraft was declared non-airworthy until the blade was replaced. That resulted in a worldwide hunt for a replacement propellor and one was finally found in California and purchased - at substantial pricing - to get the old plane back in the air. So, it does get around but I don’t know if it has ever flown to an air show in the States.
Cheers
Howard
PS: The Lanc is an early ’40’s design - I think the aircraft you mention are later ones:

From the Wartime Museum website: <http://www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=4 <http://www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=4>>

Probably the most famous Allied bomber of the Second World War, the Avro Lancaster had impressive flying characteristics and operational performance. What is surprising is that such a fine aircraft should have resulted from Avro’s desperate attempts to remedy the defects of its earlier unsuccessful Manchester bomber. The prototype Lancaster, which flew in January 1941, was a converted Manchester airframe with an enlarged wing centre section and four 1145 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin Xs. The Merlins replaced two 1,760 hp Rolls-Royce Vulture engines, which had proved to be very unreliable. The modifications were an immediate success and such was the speed of development in wartime the first production Lancaster was flown in October 1941.

RAF No. 44 Squadron was the first to be fully equipped with Lancasters, notching up another first when it flew them operationally over Heligoland in March 1942. The Lancaster could carry a huge bomb load. It was the RAF’s only heavy bomber capable of carrying the 12,000 lb “Tallboy” and 22,000 lb “Grand Slam” bombs. The aircraft won a place for itself in history, with the daring and precise bombing raids on the Ruhr Dams, in May 1943 and with the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, in November 1944.

Thousands of Canadian airmen and ground crew served with RCAF and RAF Lancaster squadrons in England, during the war. By late 1944, the Canadian No. 6 Group of Bomber Command operated thirteen squadrons of Lancasters in the war against Germany. At home, thousands more Canadians worked at Victory Aircraft in Malton (Toronto) to produce 430 Lancaster Mk. Xs, between 1943 and 1945.




Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2018 12:00:46 
From: Don Dory <don.dory at gmail.com <mailto:don.dory at gmail.com>>
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org <mailto:lug at leica-users.org>>
Subject: Re: [Leica] Visiting the Avro Lancaster at the Warplane
	Museum in Hamilton, Ontario

Very nice collection.  Hopefully funding will be found to fly your Canadian
Lanc to an American air show so us yanks can see one next to the 17's,
24's, and 29's.  It would be very educational to see the different design
philosophies in person.