Lancaster NX664 Restoration

Facebook page would be lovely 🙂

Might a Facebook page be worth creating re WU21 / NX664? There was quite a Facebook presence for the Edmunston Lancaster AR10 KB882 which now has a more certain future at the National Air Force Museum of Canada. Just thinking about generating interest / crowd funding and possibly volunteering opportunities – not denigrating the work being done which looks to be of exceptionally high standard!

What a wonderfull project! Great to see that are still people who are willing to make such an effort .

A lovely restoration – but is the pilots seat still being used as a dentist’s chair?

Unfortunately, the seat could not be recovered at the time for the reason you mentioned, but we are sometimes wondering if it is still there. We don’t have any contact on that remote island at the moment. We have been lent an original seat, and have made a near perfect copy of it. We just have to install the harness we bought over a decade ago now, but we are missing the locking device to have it correctly installed.

Lancaster NX664 cockpit by Silber Pferd, on Flickr

But if the original seat could be reunited with the plane someday, it would just be great (just like the propeller that had been saw off, and was displayed outside a bar in Noumea, since replaced by a similar prop, but the shape of the blades are a little bit different).

Thanks for the update.. always interesting to see photos of parts of the aircraft not normally seen.

Keep up the good work!

that last shot just highlights the sheer difficulty of clambering over the wing spar in the fuselage to get to the front or back of the airframe – particulaly in full flying kit

There is a certain irony in it being towed out of the hangar by a BMW…..

A lovely restoration – but is the pilots seat still being used as a dentist’s chair?

Hi All,
Laurent,
You and the team should be so proud of your achievement so far the restoration looks magnifiscent with what you have done on your ltd budget.:eagerness::cool:

Geoff.

Thanks for the kind words, Geoff. Very much appreciated.

Hi All,
Laurent,
You and the team should be so proud of your achievement so far the restoration looks magnifiscent with what you have done on your ltd budget.:eagerness::cool:

Geoff.

How are the repairs to the centre section coming along? Thanks for the update…!

The most damaged zones were the bomb bay, which should be finished by the end of the year, and the wings trailing edges, corroded and crushed during the recovery operation, which are progressing slowly.

The website was updated today, in french only at the moment:

http://aalebourget.fr/restauration-du-lancaster-wu-21-de-2016-jusqua-nos-jours/

Laurent

How are the repairs to the centre section coming along? Thanks for the update…!

Hi All,

Thank you for your interest.

Most of the work is currently being done on the centre section. We have 2 or 3 members working on Wednesday, and 5 or 6 on Saturdays and sometimes a couple on Sunday, hence the slow progress.

Beside the two links given by Geoff, I have just created an album on my Flickr account for NX664, so I will try to add some pictures of our progress from time to time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36276108@N03/albums/72157679197369502

Avro Lancaster NX664 by Silber Pferd, on Flickr

Laurent

Hi All,
Ruhr Rover,
Laurent and his team are doing this on the ultimate shoe string budget and are all volunteers so they only have spare time as and when but are making
great strides with what they have accomplished so far as you can, I have just fired off an e-mail to Laurent so hopefully he will reply when and if he has time,

until then here is an update from their web page. YOU WILL NEED TRANSLATION TOOL FOR THE SITE

Web site:- http://aalebourget.fr/category/accueil/ Other aircraft restorations and aviation themed articles.

NX644 PAGE:- http://aalebourget.fr/category/lancaster/

Geoff.

Its very strange that little is known about this restoration team and its efforts to bring this girl back.
Its been 3 years almost since the last post, does anybody have any news about this Lancaster ??

Hi All,
Only to glad to be of assistance, the small band of elderly gents and Laurent that are restoring NX664 are doing an excellent job considering l reported working the odd day here and there and some weekends, I wish I only had half the gumption these guys have then my garden would be looking better. 10/10 A+ :eagerness:

Geoff.

What a great job they are doing with her. The interior looks better than the day she left the factory.

Thank you Geoff, that is terribly sad news, although I suspected that it may be the case. Jean Michel was, in my experience a consummate gentleman. However, it is pleasing to see that the NX664 stands as a tribute to his preservation efforts.

Hi All,
Havard4,
Laurent has allowed me to post the following about Jean Michel and a smidgen of news.
Hello Geoff,
Sadly, Jean Michel passed away in December 2008. He had been the president of association Ailes Anciennes from the start in 1977, and without him, our Lanc would not be in France, as being a former french navy officer and having had a staff job with Japan Airlines in France helped tremendously to bring teams over there for quite nothing, and brigging back the Lanc at the tax payer expense. I guess that even now, it would cost a lot to bring back such a large plane from such a remote location.
Also about NX664
Our plane will be restored to static display, and will not be able to taxi under her own power, the engines are just “dead”.

Geoff.

Hi All,
Here is the web page giving the history Laurent said he will eventually get around to updating but some good photos of the condition it was in before restoration.

http://eternal.flight.pagesperso-orange.fr/wu21/lancasteracl_e.html

Geoff.

Thanks for the updates folks! Was hoping that would happen!

Here are a few more photos from October 2011

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4812 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4811 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4799 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4780 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4776 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4773 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4768 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr

Lancaster NX664 WU-21_4764 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr