Canadian Lancaster Restoration — Possibly to Flight Status

https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/historic-avro-lancaster-bomber-heading-to-north-saanich-museum-1.23382846

story from British Columbia newspaper

ZRX61…..”…Cause they can……”

VeRA will have a wingman once this is complete and so will L for Leader when Just Jane is complete. Fantastic!

Hi
I wonder if they will all fly together at some point in the future
Four lancs ?

almost enough for a film ?

cheers
jerry

Hi
Awesome a Lanc coming to BC
BC will have a nice selection
cheers
jerry

If only we had a flying Lanc here in Australia, to honour and commemorate the sacrifice of the Australians in Bomber Command.

For context, this would be in addition to the two well looked after ones inside.

If only we had a flying Lanc here in Australia, to honour and commemorate the sacrifice of the Australians in Bomber Command.

Couldn’t agree more.

To replace the one taken from us for Duxford…

Still waiting for someone to explain why Ontario needs a 5th Lancaster?

Statement released by Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.

In-light of some recent misinformation in the press and apparent innuendos I will provide following information:

As you may know, last September when the City of Toronto announced that they wished to deaccession their Lancaster FM104, we submitted a bid for the aircraft to the Toronto Economic Development Committee that involved a partial restoration of the aircraft making the forward cabin and cockpit a fully interactive display and employing Augmented Virtual Reality to enhance the visitor experience of being seated in a fully functioning Lancaster Cockpit . The proposal also included a similar treatment and presentation for the mid-upper gun turret and tail turret. In addition to these fully interactive displays our proposal also included presenting a permanent display on the history of Lancaster FM104 and the Toronto connection.

In late 2017 and early 2018, a group from Toronto called “FM104EVER” came forward asking Thompson the chair of the EDC for extra time to present their proposal to keep Lancaster FM104 in the GTA and frankly we, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage completely supported the “FM104EVER” bid as we to thought that the aircraft should rightfully stay in the GTA as a matter of preference. In the interim period between January and July 9, 2018 we made no further submission or amendments to our initial submission so as not to compete with, undermine, or weaken the chances of the “FM104EVER” bid being successful.

Then on July 9, 2018, Thompson publicly announced that the “FM104EVER” bid was no longer being considered and that the EDC was going to recommend that Lancaster FM104 go to the British Columbia Aviation Museum or a party in Edenvale Ontario.

At that time, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum then re-submitted a revised proposal to undertake the full restoration of Lancaster FM104 at our own expense (2 million dollars +) under a 10 year program and during this restoration to fully examine and determine if in fact the aircraft could be feasibly restored to flying condition. This revised proposal was made in order to provide the EDC and Toronto Council with a viable, self-financed, “stay at home” option for Lancaster FM104 if that was an option they were hoping to have access to.

This proposal was sent to Thompson as Chair of the EDC and Mayor John Tory on July 13, 2018. Phone calls were also made to Mayor John Tory and Thompson and after several calls to Thompson’s Office he eventually returned my calls on Monday afternoon July 16, 2018. During this call Thompson advised me that the EDC would not consider the revised submission from the Canadian Warplane Heritage.

As such when the Toronto Council voted 30-5 in favour of sending Lancaster FM104 to the British Columbia Aviation Museum there was no public discussion of the revised proposal from the CWH and it is not known if the Council at large were even aware of this “ stay at home” option for the restoration Lancaster FM104 that had been presented to Thompson and Mayor Tory and offered to them.

I will always be proud of this Hamilton based museum, the Canadian Warplane Heritage “ Canada’s Flying Museum” who stepped up in this situation to help the constituents of Toronto who wanted to keep their Lancaster FM104 the region, even though this option was apparently not that important to Thompson or his peers.

As we prepare to commemorate and celebrate our 30th Anniversary of the first flight after its restoration of our “Mynarski Memorial Lancaster” (FM213) on September 11, 2018, we will fly VR-A in memory of all those who built Lancasters at Victory Aircraft, all those who served in Bomber Command, and the RCAF, as well as, remember the constituents of the GTA who were apparently not that well represented in the Lancaster FM104 decision.

David G. Rohrer
President & CEO
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

I’m all for it, just being realistic.
Funding could perhaps be better spent on the Halifax reconstruction already advanced by Karl Kjarsgaard and friends.

VeRA will have a wingman once this is complete and so will L for Leader when Just Jane is complete. Fantastic!

If only we had a flying Lanc here in Australia, to honour and commemorate the sacrifice of the Australians in Bomber Command.

Wishing them the very best with the project! I can understand some people’s scepticism about restoring her to airworthy given her current state, but then if they were “only” aiming for static restoration it wouldn’t generate so much excitement, interest and potential donations. Just mentioning the possibility of airworthiness has generated this thread…

With eight surviving Lancasters in Canada I’d still call that pretty rare! All relative, I suppose.

Andy

Really? I saw it in 2009 when it was still being worked on. After the museum had to close nothing has been done to it. If it is a problem to continue a static restoration I cannot see (but hope to be proven wrong) an airworthy restoration taking place. The Lanc isn’t a rare beast in Canada.
Funding comes to mind.
Cees