Dambusters Blog

Lancaster fans in Britain are in for a treat this summer as the Canadian ‘Mynarski’ Lancaster heads over to the UK in August. The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario revealed today that it plans to fly its vintage Avro Lancaster to England in August. Together with the Royal Air Force’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster, it will be involved in a month-long flying tour in the UK before returning home in September.
The Lancaster is scheduled to leave Canada on 4 August. The five-day transatlantic trip to England is being done in four to five-hour hops, with refuelling and rest stops in Goose Bay, Labrador; Narsarsuaq, Greenland; and Keflavik, Iceland. It will land in Coningsby, home of the BBMF, on 8 August and start a schedule of display flights in the UK on 14 August, flying out of Humberside Airport. According to the Canadian broadcaster, CBC:

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service. The sight of two Lancasters flying in formation once more is a “once in a lifetime opportunity, something that will never happen again,” said Al Mickeloff, spokesman for the museum in Hamilton, which owns the Canadian Lancaster. “We don’t expect to ever do another trip like this.”
Hamilton’s WWII bomber, known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster, is an Avro Mk X built in 1945 at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont. Used to train air crews and later for coastal patrols and search-and-rescue work, it was retired in 1963. The museum bought it in 1977 for about $10,000 and a team of volunteers restored it and returned the plane to the air on Sept. 24, 1988.
Museum president and CEO David Rohrer said he and the RAF have talked about the possibility of bringing the planes together for more than a decade, but serious discussions started just a few months ago – partly because both groups wanted to do something to mark the 100th anniversary of WWI and 70th anniversary of D-Day this year.  The RAF wanted to arrange a formation flight before its own Lancaster is grounded next year for a planned overhaul. The Hamilton Lancaster was at a perfect point in its maintenance cycle to take on a trip like this, so the museum sent a planning team to the U.K. in January. “A window of opportunity was identified to bring the last two flying Lancasters in the world together in tribute to the crews who flew it, the people at Victory Aircraft who built it, and all the veterans of the war,” Rohrer told CBC News. “We always would have regretted it if we hadn’t tried our best to make this happen when the window presented itself.”
Mickeloff said big audiences are expected at appearances in the U.K., pointing out that the BBMF is a military plane and off-limits to the public, whereas the museum’s Lancaster is a flying exhibit that people can get up close to and even book a flight on. “We are going to give the general public that same access in the U.K. – access that they’ve never had to a Lancaster before. They’ll be able to get right up to it.” “It’s a real honour to be invited to fly with the Royal Air Force,” Rohrer added. “It’s a recognition of the confidence they have in the museum, and in the talent and dedication of the staff and volunteers, that they’re willing to be our host.”

The exact UK schedule will not be released for sometime, but you can bet the crowds will be enormous whenever the two aircraft make a joint appearance. Great news! [Hat tip: Paul Morley]