Edmundston needs a home for it's Lancaster

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Update?

http://inquinte.ca/story/lancaster-t...r-force-museum

[Hanno Spoelstra]

RCAF to help restore Lancaster bomber in preparation for its 100th anniversary

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/nation...th-anniversary

[Brian Gough]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ston-1.4301968

'National treasure': Edmundston gives up its Lancaster bomber


After 50 years by the road in northwestern New Brunswick, plane will be dismantled and sent to Ontario museum

By Elizabeth Fraser, CBC News Posted: Sep 23, 2017 8:00 AM AT Last Updated: Sep 23, 2017 8:00 AM AT


This Lancaster bomber was purchased by the City of Edmundston in 1964, but it is in need of restoration, which the city can't afford. (Edmundston society for the Preservation of the Lancaster/Facebook)

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Edmundston has bid farewell to its very own Lancaster bomber, one of the last survivors of a celebrated Second World War fleet and a landmark in the area for more than 50 years.

Residents gathered Wednesday for a small ceremony to commemorate the Lancaster KB 882 before the start of the aircraft's long journey to Trenton, Ont., where it will be featured at the National Air Force Museum of Canada.

"It's a mixed feeling, obviously," Edmundston Mayor Cyrille Simard said during the ceremony. "This plane has been here more than 50 years.
"It's part of our community, it's part of our history."

• Edmundston's Lancaster bomber getting new home in Trenton, Ont.
• Rare Lancaster bomber grounded in New Brunswick after Edmonton restoration plans fall flat

The bomber, which has been sitting still on the grass near the Trans-Canada Highway for decades, was flown on 12 operational missions during the Second World War.

'It's a new beginning for future generations.'- Cyrille Simard

It then served in area reconnaissance for 15 years, providing service to the Royal Canadian Air Force for mapping, charting and photographic work in the Arctic, said Kevin Windsor, the curator of the air force museum.
The City of Edmundston bought the plane in 1964 for $1,600.
Over the years, Simard said, people from around the world have come to see it.
But after being outside for so long, the Lancaster bomber was in desperate need of restoration work, which the city couldn't afford to do.

Too costly to keep

For many years, volunteers looked for help to get the plane restored and preserved and worked with government to find ways to raise the millions of dollars needed.
Preservation was just too costly, however.
"If you want to do something right, you need some resources," said Simard. "If you want to preserve it you have to do something."

Initially, the Alberta Aviation Museum submitted the winning bid for the plane, but later backed out after realizing the plane was too expensive to take on. The Trenton museum finished second in the initial bidding and was still interested.
Simard said the City of Edmundston eventually gave the bomber to the Ontario museum, and he's looking forward to residents from the area visiting the plane in its new home.
"It's part of us, so there's a bit of sadness to see it going away, but at the same time we feel satisfied of the fact that … this national treasure has to be preserved."

Prior to the long journey to Ontario, technicians will carefully dismantle the hundreds of pieces that are part of the plane, a process that could take three or four weeks. Bits and pieces of the plane could start arriving in Trenton as early as next week.
Some of the pieces, such as engines, propellers and different parts of the wings, will be crated and taken to the museum on a truck. Technicians are still trying to figure out how to transport larger pieces such as the fuselage.
"These aircraft were built during the war era, so it's been about 70 or 80 years since we've really had a lot of experience with the actual assembly," Capt. Jamie Boudreau, the on-site officer in charge of the Lancaster recovery project.
"It's a step-by-step process, but there will be snags and issues along the way that we'll overcome to get the aircraft back safely."

History in the making

It could take up to seven years to restore, at a cost of about $25,000 a year.
"It's going to add to our displays at the National Air Force Museum of Canada," Windsor said.


Technicians begin dismantling the aircraft this week for the trip to Trenton, where it will eventually be seen at the National Air Force Museum of Canada. (Elizabeth Fraser/CBC News)

The plane will also be joining a fully restored Halifax bomber, which served two different missions in 1945 above Germany at the same time as the Lancaster.
Windsor said the National Air Force Museum will be the only museum in the world to feature both restored airplanes to tell the history of war and post-war years.
Two Lancaster planes are still flying today, in Hamilton, Ont., and the U.K. More than 7,377 Lancasters were built, including 430 in Canada, the museum website says.
"At the end of the day I feel like this is a new beginning for this plane," Simard said.
"It's a new beginning for future generations."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Yeo.NT]

Here is a link to the short video that was shared on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nafmcanada/...9060965795560/

[Barry Churcher]

At 9:00 am on Oct. 04 two tractor trailers arrived at the National Air Force Museum with Lancaster KB882.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

News update:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3837385/l...um-in-trenton/

After decades of outdoor display, it was purchased recently by the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton, where it will be restored to original, but non-flying condition. Mike Joly is in charge of restoration work at the museum.

“We surveyed the aircraft and found out it’s in better shape than we thought it was, even with sitting there since 1964,” said Joly. “The outside of it is in excellent shape, compared to some of the aircraft we rebuilt here.”

[Lang]

Here is a short Canadian clip of Bristol radial engine Lancasters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2SWXg9e_0s

[Hanno Spoelstra]

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/aviation...fely-home.html

“It wasn’t built to dismantle,” he added, saying that the team is preserving whatever they can, and aiming to dismantle as little as possible to make the restorers’ work easier. He also noted that the aircraft was simply landed and put in place; there was even still oil in the engines. “It was just like tar!” he said.

[Brian Gough]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ject-1.4713834

Check out the link as the pictures didn't reproduce from the article below.

"Fastidious museum crew gets Lancaster bomber ready for next phase of curious life
Lancaster KB 882, formerly of Edmundston, is being restored as a reconnaissance aircraft

Alyssa Gould · CBC News · Posted: Jun 20, 2018 8:16 PM AT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

The Lancaster KB 882 was shipped by flatbed truck in pieces to the National Air Force Museum of Canada, which hopes to have it ready for display by the 100th anniversary of the air force in 2024. (Submitted by Brad Denoon)
Not long before the Lancaster KB 882 settled down in Edmundston for half a century, the plane was keeping its Cold War eyes and ears on Russian fishermen, real or pretending, off the East Coast of North America.

As the Cuban missile crisis ended in October 1962, the Lancaster helped to make sure the Soviet Union did what it promised and nothing it shouldn't.

Although the plane started out as a bomber near the end of the Second World War, it spent its last years in reconnaissance — the phase that a painstaking restoration of KB 882 aims to evoke.

"It flew a number of missions taking photographs and listening in to Russian ice stations near the North Pole," said Chris Colton, executive director of the National Air Force Museum, which acquired the plane last year.

"And it was involved in the Cuban missile crisis, flying up and down the East Coast of Canada, listening in to the various Russian trawlers that were out there."


The Lancaster KB 882 is getting a meticulous restoration by experienced volunteers and others. (Submitted by Brad Denoon)
In Trenton, Ont., a restoration crew is reassembling and restoring the plane, hoping it will be ready for display when the Canadian air force celebrates its centennial in 2024.

Volunteers were thrilled to get their hands on the plane, one of 17 left in the world.

'National treasure': Edmundston gives up its Lancaster bomber
Edmundston's Lancaster bomber getting new home in Trenton, Ont.
The KB 882 arrived in Ontario last year from Edmundston, transported in pieces on flatbed trucks.

"The guys are really happy to be working on it," said Mike Joly, head of restoration at the museum. "They've been waiting ever since we found out we might be getting it."


Historian Daniel Little inside the cockpit of the Lancaster KB 882 in Edmunston. (Submitted by Daniel Little)
Edmundston bought the Lancaster in the mid-1960s and kept it by the side of the highway, where it became a landmark.

Eventually, however, the city had to find a new home for the plane, which had deteriorated in the elements and from visits by vandals.

​Joly and his 25 volunteers work on the plane from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

Some of the volunteers have been doing restoration work for more than 20 years. A few worked on restoring the Halifax bomber that arrived at the museum in 1996.


A Halifax bomber will share exhibit room with the Lancaster bomber the museum acquired from Edmundston. (Submitted by Karl Kjarsgaard)
When word spread that the Lancaster, too, was on its way to Trenton, the museum was inundated with offers of help, said Colton.

Many of the old Lancasters have been restored as bombers, not reconnaissance planes, so the Trenton project is different, he said.

The restoration assembly line is elaborate.

Crews are removing and replacing corroded areas, making sure the aircraft will be in pristine condition.

The plane will taken in pieces to a special compound for holding until a museum extension, the Lancaster's new home, is ready.

​

What's left of the interior of the Lancaster KB 882. (Submitted by Brad Denoon)
Hide captionToggle Fullscreen1 of 2At the beginning of image galleryShow next image (2 of 2)
Joly and the restoration team are focusing on the exterior of the aircraft first, and the project is ahead of schedule.

Restoring the interior could take up to five years, depending on the availability of consoles, radios, cameras and other pieces, said Colton.

Some pieces had been stolen and little is left of the interior.

"It was pretty well stripped and decimated," Colton said.

When the work is done, the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum will be the only one in the world with both a Lancaster and a Halifax bomber fully restored and on display, Colton said.

And oddly enough — and to Colton's amazement — KB 882 and the Halifax bomber have crossed paths before.

On the night of May 30, 1945, the Halifax bomber took off from the Tarrant Rushton airfield in southwest England for a mission over Germany.

The same night, the Lancaster bomber departed from its home base in England on one of its 12 missions of the war, Colton said.

"What are the odds that we would have two aircraft on display that actually flew in the skies over England on their way to their targets on the exact same night?" "

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alyssa Gould

Reporter

Alyssa Gould is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick based in Fredericton.

Brian