The “Lancaster” at Newquay is largely a mockup created by Jeremy Hall, with only its nose being original, and that is a post war RCAF maritime patrol nose.

While  it may be “an original post war Lancaster nose from KB976” that isn’t sufficient to bestowe the KB976 identity to this “airframe” or morph it from “mockup/replica” to “original airframe” status.

Most of KB976 survives in Kermit Weeks hands, with some “missing/damaged” sections exchanged with sections from a derelict RCAF fuselage KB994, while it is currently dismantled and stored, it is a complete kitset quite capable of re-assembly and at the least static restoration and display, and holding more than enough of most of KB976 to claim and retain that identity.

Kermit has the original cockpit, centre section and complete wing of KB976 together with the substituted centre and tail fuselage sections KB994 -more than enough to confirm that airframe as KB976.

The residue of KB994 and the “missing/damaged” sections of KB976 consist of the fuselage tail at Aeroventure and the Centre Fuselage and cockpit down under – acquired and shipped from the UK as part of the Lincoln RF342 recovery, but kept seperate from that project and its current situation.

Here is an excellent website recording the sad life of KB976, but it survives as a complete but dismantled Lancaster kitset stored in Kermit Weeks collection, and hence it is the real and only KB976