Edmundston needs a home for it's Lancaster

[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

[Hanno Spoelstra]

More news on another Lancaster, FM100:

https://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/...aster-bombers/

[David Dunlop]

It would be nice to see a second one flying in Canada. At the very least, it splits the demands on the aircraft between two planes, so less wear and tear on either individually.

I think there is another in Nanton, Alberta being restored to full ground operation capability and last I heard they were planning restoration work on critical pints to be airworthy where possible...just in case.

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

More news on another Lancaster, FM100:

https://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/...aster-bombers/

I know that Lanc well. When it was on its plinth in Toronto you could just touch the tail wheel. In the same park was a 25 pdr, an M4A3E8 Sherman and a 155 mm gun. At the edge of the park along the Toronto waterfront was HMCS Haida. All long gone now. Such a display of military might was just not on for 'progressive' Toronto.

One story I can share: in the mid 1980's, when it was suffering from neglect, a local Air Cadet squadron was given permission to clean it up. On the appointed day the smartly turned out cadets scrambled up the ladders that had been brought and a city worker unlocked the padlock on the rear door. Peeking inside, the floor was covered with drug needles and used condoms. Seems somebody and their friends had found a way in and it had become their party place. The city worker replaced the padlock and the disappointed cadets went home.