Any news of Lancaster KB976

Air Ministry,
I have read the story of KB976 on your web page many thanks for the post,I still remember the shock I felt knowing that all that work to get her flying had come to a disastrous end then to top it all the sad news about Charles Church but you have filled in the blanks for me,you your self must be the man who it has hit the hardest you have my respect for your timeless love of this aircraft and many thanks for sharing this harrowing story with us all.

Geoff.

Fantastic collection of photos…there were plenty I had not seen of KB976. I had not idea the she was under potential rebuild to fly back in 1987 when she was at British Aerospace, Woodford.

Andrew

Great website, and some very interesting photo’s !!

Fascinating website! Very well done putting it together. Hopefully one day there will be a happy ending to the tale.

Having given myself a headache trying to piece together the complicated story of Lancaster KB976, I have put together a few pages on the web attempting to avoid this headache for other people. If anyone wishes to correct or add to this please contact me via the website. I hope you find it useful and interesting.

I am very grateful to everyone who provided help and photographs for the site.

Lancaster KB976

Regards, Andrew

And me…..

I would love to hear the story as well!

I for one would love to hear KB976’s story. Any chance you can tell it on here?

Me too 🙂

Roger Smith.

I spent nearly a year getting KB 976 ready to fly back to Strathallan and in 1987 when Charles Church purchased it from Willie Roberts, I went with the aircraft and was the project manager on behalf of the owner Charles Church. I was there when the roof at Woodford collapsed and was with the project for Charles during the “battle” with BAe at Woodford to try to recover it from the mess it was in. During this time, I went to Edmonton and purchased the fuselage of KB 994 from my friends who owned it and had it parked at Namao air force base. Then later we purchased the Lincoln off Mike Woodley to help sort the project out. Around this time Charles was sadly killed and the Lanc project came to a halt and I stored the Lanc components with Bill Fisher in the wilds of Lincolnshire….after that it was out of my hands. But if anyone wants any detailed info on this project whilst I was involved in it, contact me either on here or at Popham Airfield.

Good morning

Our Museum (The Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton) would love to have your story of KB976 (the St. Albert Lancaster as it is know around here) for our archives and eventual display.

If you would be so kind as to jot it down and e-mail it to us it would be greatly appreciated.

We would also be sharing it with our friends and partners at the Aerospace Museum of Calgary and the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton AB.

My direct e-mail if you do get a chance to send the story is…
[email]eahs.execdirector@shawbiz.ca[/email]

Thanks so much

Tom Hinderks
Executive Director
Alberta Aviation Museum

I for one would love to hear KB976’s story. Any chance you can tell it on here?

Regards,

Rich

I spent nearly a year getting KB 976 ready to fly back to Strathallan and in 1987 when Charles Church purchased it from Willie Roberts, I went with the aircraft and was the project manager on behalf of the owner Charles Church. I was there when the roof at Woodford collapsed and was with the project for Charles during the “battle” with BAe at Woodford to try to recover it from the mess it was in. During this time, I went to Edmonton and purchased the fuselage of KB 994 from my friends who owned it and had it parked at Namao air force base. Then later we purchased the Lincoln off Mike Woodley to help sort the project out. Around this time Charles was sadly killed and the Lanc project came to a halt and I stored the Lanc components with Bill Fisher in the wilds of Lincolnshire….after that it was out of my hands. But if anyone wants any detailed info on this project whilst I was involved in it, contact me either on here or at Popham Airfield.

Thanks David so it is just poorly done external skin patching that makes it look like a mockup then…

The repairs you mention were carried out for the BBC drama ‘Night Flight’ from memory which also stared the Panton’s Lancaster.This was all done before Aeroventure acquired her . Whilst fairly crude there is nothing that cannot be sorted out relatively easily. The internal structure is all genuine.

As far as I’m aware, it’s an original section. You can see some of the “repaired” sheets in the demobbed.org photo. Unfortunately, the repairs on the other side are worse and this is the side that is currently on view at Aeroventure.

Alan, am I mistaken then and it is a real section from end to end with only poor sheetmetal on the outside?

These photos give you some idea of it. I saw it a couple of weeks ago and have to say it’s not really displayed to advantage, being shoved against a wall and not really accessible. I’ve no doubt Aeroventure are short of display space so have to compromise on these things. There have been some pretty random sheet metal “repairs” done to it at some time and they look very amateurish to say the least. The gutted and corroded remains of a Rose turret (inappropriate on this aeroplane of course) is perched at the back and is intended to give an impression of what the rear end should look like but it actually adds to the sad, neglected air that the display has (in my opinion).

If you were to install a replica tailplane just forward of the rear turret position, plus source a half decent turret for it (Air gunner’s museum, Elvington maybe?), you could restore the interior quite convincingly and it would then be a very good exhibit.

I dare say Aeroventure would be considering something like this, subject as always to time and manpower being available.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8774173@N07/1355186048

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/kb976.jpg

I took that photo at Strathallan in early eighties.

I believe I have a photo of the aircraft from around 1984 kicking around somewhere…

Am I missing something here. The rear fuselage is half mockup correct? I just checked my files and the only area of original rear fuselage I can see in the picture is from the base of the rear turret to just forward of the patch over the old ASR window forward of the tailplane. Even the crew door looks mocked up!?

There was no bidding war – indeed at one point, Mark pulled out as he hadnt secured the funding. Keeping in touch with the seller was pretty straightforward; indeed I eventually bought a Vampire from him.

Were the section fully fitted out with all the kit relative to that area, I would see it as having more value. As it is, I just dont know!

Bruce

Depends on your level of interprretation -it’s 21 feet long and to most minds that represents a significant section of Lancaster especially as it contains the rear turret which most people possibly consider the second most significant part of the aircraft in terms of action. It also has the added interest of having been in Yorkshire in 1945.
As for the selling of the Lancaster /Lincoln parts – the ‘cheque in the post’ basically meant that the initial enquiry ended for a long time so as not to step on other people’s toes and start a silly bidding war .