World's only flyable WWII Lancaster bombers meet in Lincs

When I was a lad, I used to see and hear piston engine aircraft flying over Vancouver in the 50's.The sound gets in your blood. My dad was a tool and die maker during WWII building aircraft here in Vancouver. My cousin in northern Alberta was part of the team that rescued a Canso (Catalina) amphibian from the Arctic that is currently being rebuilt to flying condition. I got to crawl through it this spring.

A flight or two of Phantoms going in and out of RAF Wildenrath made a fair bit of noise over my school play ground in the 70s. As did the air displays they would put on - including the obligatory pair of nodding Harriers mucking about not very far from the crowd.

Watching Starfighters n Phantoms (Luftwaffe) and all sorts of other bloody great military noise makers was how I grew up. Leopards, Chieftans, Lucks, Saladins, Saracens and others would run up and down the road. Oh and Gazelles, Jaguars, Chinooks and others also filled the air.

Dad used to blow things up for a living (ATO) before settling down to quieter pursuits like blowing things up in demos at the local ammunition depot.

Wonder where the tinnitus came from ...

Excellent, nostalgic page(s) of comments, thanks all. For me, the childhood aircraft sound of choice was the whine of Sea Harriers landing at RNAS Yeovilton. Certainly not a relaxing sound, but a distinctive one.

Looking forward to seeing these ladies at Dunsfold over the bank holiday weekend!

Delicate sound of thunder

Two Lancs in formation to the soundtrack of 8 merlins; poetry to bring a tear to the eyes of grown men.

Impressively long lived

It's amazing that they can keep two Lancs flying for nearly seventy years! Sadly not true for other aircraft - Vulcan XH778 is still going now, but next year she'll hit the buffers because of the rules about flying hours for some of the airframe components, and that will presumably be that. Keep an eye open for her at shows this year and next, as it'll be your last chance

More at http://www.vulcantothesky.org/ - they need £200K to service her for next year's displays.

What has thiz got to do with IT?

I like fast cars but I wouldn't expect to see an article about formula one on el reg.

See them together on Jersey

Due to fly together in the display in Jersey

http://www.jerseyairdisplay.org.uk/news/showarticle.php?articleID=181

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-28012462

Should be good!

Lucky me

I have actually been on board the Canadian Lanc, and I didn't have to pre-book or stand in line for hours either! Ah the joys of living in an undercrowded country! And add in a B-17, B-24, and a B-25. And a Canuck Avro Anson...

For what it's worth

The gent who twenty years later became my godfather was an aircraft mechanic working on Lancasters first in Canada and latterly at Scampton.

As a child, my train set speed controller was the cabin lighting dimmer from a Lancaster. (When he died, I donated the part and a number of other souvenirs back to one of the reconstruction groups.)

There's a Lanc sitting inside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Used to go look at it on occasion. "G For GEORGE" is awesome.

https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/george/

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RELAWM31788/?image=1#display-image

https://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_614.asp

Then just a few years ago I got to sit inside a Bristol Freighter's cockpit at Wigram, and thought how it must've been for the big bombers as well, with the engines roaring in your ears ...

Grandad built Lancs, Dad did Vulcans

My grandad worked at Avro Woodford during the war buildling Lancasters - I have a great picture of about 40 men all standing in front of one Lanc in various forms of attire - one looks like a gardener, another a grease monkey, some are in smart office clothes, one looks like a secret service agent....There was this story in our family that my Grandad was involved in the bouncing bomb stuff, but he is no longer alive to ask and I don't know how to find out more (now that I am more interested...)

My Dad then worked on the Vulcan - doing his engineering apprenticeship with Avro - we love the sounds of both aircraft even though I have such mixed feelings about bombers being a bit of a ~peace loving hippy~....When I see+hear the WWII memorial flight fly past, it brings a lump to my throat and yet I would not describe myself as particularly patriotic or proud of being British.

Anyone any ideas how I find out more about my Lanc photo?

The warbird scene is amazing now. I was reflecting last week that 50 years ago I would ask my mother to take a long cut past Tangmere to pass the gate guardian Spitfire, just to see one, but last week there were one or two Spitfires over her house every day...

About 20 years ago I was with a party of schoolchildren and others spending a day restoring the daub (clay) panels of a thatched Lincolnshire 'mud-and-stud' building located on the other side of the road at the end of RAF Coningsby's runway when the BBMF came in to land over the building preceded by the dull throb of the six merlins (1xSpitfire, 1xHurricane and 1x Lancaster) before the noise rose to a crescendo as they burst into view, a few feet above our heads…

The kids had enjoyed mixing up the mud for the repairs but their day (and mine) was made truly unforgettable as the Memorial Flight roared overhead and the Lancaster's pilot waved at us from the cockpit !

Blenheim to fly again... soon

The sounds of the Lancaster Merlin engines in brilliant, we hear a lot of them over Cambridgeshire. I've had the pleasure of flying a Spitfire, and I must say it's an awesome place to hear a Merlin engine from.

For air buffs, the Blenheim will be flying again soon (Bristol engines).

WTF is that!!!!?

I've seen both of these Lancasters in their natural habitats: the BBMF one flies over us at least once a year usually with his two pals, although I was buzzed by the Lancaster whilst kayaking up the river Medway when it flew over the War and Peace show one year - the title is an approximation of what was said as it came over from behind at treetop height... nearly fell out of my boat!

The Canadian one I saw whilst walking around a lake near Banff: in that case it was "I'm sure that's a Lancaster bomber - WTF is it doing here?". It was a little higher flying between the hills, so the noise wasn't quite as dramatic, but still very distinctive.

The memories

About 25 years ago I was at the Hamilton Airshow to see all the wonderful old warbirds. Bought a ticket ( proceeds to the museum etc ) for a ride in one of the warbirds. AND WON! Got to go for a 30 min flight in the Lanc. Its deafening, cold, cramped... And it took weeks for me to stop grinning like an idiot :)

mmmmm warbirds

It would be utterly amazing to see two Lancs fly in formation...might make me cry a little.

I've seen a few warbirds fly, but last sunday I finally got to see a Spitfire fly, do a little fake dogfight, flybys, and other light stunts.

It was so BEAUTIFUL! I felt like I was ten years old again just gazing into the rainy sky and grinning.

My faves have to be the Mossie, Spifire, Lanc, Beufighter....and so on

Anyways, Vulture central should definitely post stories such as this one!

A late comment, but...

The Canadian Lancaster overflies my house on a semi-regular basis, given that it lives just a few cities over from me. The engines are very distinctive - you can't miss it when it happens.

If you're really interested, have money to spare, and don't mind going to Hamilton, Ontario, you can take a flight on the aircraft yourself: http://www.warplane.com/visit-cwhm/vintage-aircraft-flights.aspx

Duxford Airshow

This weekend and the Lancs are scheduled to both fly on Sunday.

Sadly, I won't probably be able to go there this time...