Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Visit to East Kirkby

Glorious

Lovely, that looks like a Canberra cockpit below the Lancs starboard outer Merlin.

Two of my favorite aircraft.
It makes me cross that the CAA persist in refusing Just Jane a permit to fly... on all sorts of devious grounds.
It is not for nothing that the CAA is fondly known as the Campaign Against Aviation...

IMSBO The Mosquito...enormously underrated.
Cheap to build, strong, fast and it is now realised somewhat stealthy. On one engine and empty of bombs, it was faster than a Lancaster on 4.....!

We could have built 3 Mosquitos for every Lancaster, one expert claimed. Losses were 20% of those for the Lancaster, a lost Mosquito claimed 2 people, a Lancaster up to 7.
Another report claimed that if we had switched most of our bomber offensive to Mosquitos from mid 1943 by mid 1944 we could have had 2500 aircraft a night over Germany, delivering 5000 tonnes of bombs a night. I've no idea if that was really possible, but it highlights what an aircraft designed and built by a small team can achieved when compared to those designed to meet specifications developed by civil servants.

They do drag Just Jane out for the occasional taxiing run with the engines spinning, (you can pay to be on board) glorious sight & sound, the indoor displays of WW2 stuff are very interesting, great day out

Absolutely - I took my Dad (ex RAF) a few years back and watched her Taxi up and down the runway - amazing sound. His cousin was a Rear Gunner, but sadly lost his life in 1943. I have a copy of his DFM along with a sixpence.

Bent Sixpence

Looking at the work going in to bringing Just Jane back to airworthiness, there is nothing petty going on. The aeroplane has undergone long periods of neglect and hasn’t flown for many years. They are finding corrosion in all sorts of places that is being rectified. Once the work is complete, Just Jane will be safe to fly again.

It’s well worth joining the Rivet Club on the lincs aviation web site - then you will contribute to the restoration and get regular updates (weekly during the winter off season when work is most active) on progress.

https://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/lancaster-restoration/

The strategy being adopted is clever - wings and fuselage elements from other aircraft are being restored to taxiiing condition so that Just Jane can continue its taxi work to raise more funds whilst it’s own wings and rear fuselage are restored to airworthy condition.

Thanks for the pictures Graham - lovely to see.

I was lucky enough to be there for the first public taxi run of the Mossie some years back.



The story behind his gradual rebuild of the plane over so many years is incredible. It will never fly as it is not an airworthy main spar etc but is amazing to watch none the less. Some of the stories he told that day were brilliant. He had a pair of Merlins he had swapped elsewhere but they were the wrong marks. He found out through various people that another guy had to of the model he needed and was up for a swap. He put them on a trailer and they met in a motorway services and did the swap.

I was with Graham for the ‘Just Jane’ visit, superb and fascinating and far exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended as a great day out.

The following day, whilst Graham was visiting an NT property, the remainder of our group visited BBMF where we had an excellent hanger tour and our tour guide was an incredibly knowledgeable chap (Alex) who had not only been a RAF technician but had finished his military career at a senior level working on air worthiness certification and crash investigation including giving witness testimony to commons select committee’s. He knew his stuff!

He did remark, and with no trace of malice, that Just Jane would never take to the air again sadly, he stated that the team of back room staff keeping certification current for the BBMF Lancaster was 31 strong and there is no way the brothers who own Jane could fund that.

Very sad, of course this is just one man’s opinion but it seemed to come from someone who knows the subject and had no axe to grind as he freely said it would be magnificent if it were possible to see them fly in formation. He recalled the day with some emotion when the Canadian Lancaster was visiting and the 2 of them flew over the airfield, ‘can you imagine all 3 flying past’? he asked……

Wonderful 2 days out.

BR
Colin

Sadly it's years since I last went to East Kirkby.
When I was there last I'd wandered off looking at things, when I looked back I noticed that my wife was surrounded by a group of old men (!!!)
She'd been looking at some black and white photos of airmen when one of the old men said to her 'don't you recognise me'.
The photo she was looking at was a picture of the old man as a young airman in WW2!
It turned out that the old men were a squadron who were having their annual reunion that day and had come to East Kirkby to start the day off.
From not being too interested, my wife was suddenly immersed in living history, she got the full guided tour from the people who were there.
I managed to hang on to the back of the group, but strangely they were more keen on her........