PA474 is Airborne Again

Info re: the Phantom

My father, W/O. John H. Knox, D.F.C. Can/R 125200, RCAF, flew 15 ops in the Phantom from Nov 43 to Apr 9 as bomb aimer with Captain “Butch” Bouchard. I made a pilgrimage to Grimsby and the old airfield at North Killingholme two years ago. It was very emotional for me to stand where my father and the Phantom once stood, I am very proud of my father and all those other young men who fought. Having the BBMF represent the Phantom is truly amazing for me and my family. I hope to be able to see her some time during the show season. Does anyone know if there are any special events for ex-crew and families?

Thanks;

Scott Knox, Ottawa, Canada

Lindys Lad,
I think Paul is in the picture, near the back on the left ?

I asked Paul where JP was, he hadn’t been there for a week or so, he said that he had had a sudden bereavement in the family and had been off since,although I think he did pop in on the wednesday morning.

Not sure about a plaque, it would have been a good idea though. What about a retrofited one?:D
Cheers, Alan

The pesky volunteer .:o

BBB, Jackattack, Fluffy and all involved.

Thankyou for a job well done and the regular updates and pics from Jackattack. I wish all operators could be this open but I appriciate that a private owner is free to do as they wish.

She looks gorgeous! I can’t wait to see her on Saturday.

Peter

BBB – Bruce, have you guys fitted a plaque to the aircraft? It was discussed briefly at the beginning of the contract, but I guess Ben was not to keen on it.

Paul and John are missing on the group photo – where were they?

What are you going to do now… Lancaster majors are a bit thin on the ground these days….

Good effort, and thanks for the amazing experience of working on her, its such a shame i had to go before the end. Good luck for the future.

The useless geordie……….

There are some gorgeous air-to-air shots of the Lanc- and some other great stuff, too- on the BBMF website-

http://www.bbmf.co.uk/news.html

🙂

thanks for the praise but it was a job made easy by all those involved. I’m freelance (now unemployed ) and the Lancsater was a joint venture between myself and Atlantique, so not sure when the Heron is coming in but I’m back there on Tuesday so I’ll let you know if I find anything out.

The project management does you a great credit Bruce, I wish in my old line of work (IT) there were more people like you… Hope whatever projects you may find yourself on in the future can be conveyed here. Well done to all the Atlantique ground crew and the paint designer, it will be a great taking point for many years to come.

By the way when is the Heron going in the hangar?

Firstly may i say congrats to all involved, she looks stunning and its great to see her back in the air where she belongs:)
To those that can only winge and gripe abour the paint work not being correct, or a letter missing or whatever, may i say, Get a life!!!!
Alot of hard work and money has gone into this Aeroplane and for my money i dont care if it is pink with blue spots as long as it is kept flying.
As for you so called experts, if you look at any Aeroplane that was in service each sqaudron would have there own take on how the markings should be and many would differ from the standard.
Any way congrat again to all involved in a great job, She looks fantastic and she is in the air. long may it continue.
To those who moan lets have a look at your Lancaster when you paint it. :diablo:

Have you resigned your position as Chief Constable, Mark? 😉

To all involved with the overhaul of PA474 – my all time favourite warbird – fantastic work!

As for the mistakes, the only people who will moan are the so called expert researchers / roundle police

And not a single member of the “roundel police” in sight at Rotterdam Airport…

These people are obviously a ruddy menace – but just who are the ’roundel police’?

Agreed. Great day for all involved with the event. It went extremely well. PA474 out with 36 hours to spare before the event. As OC BBMF said, there was no plan B. My plan B was not to turn up and move to Argentina if the Lanc wasn’t out in time.

Have a good time in Rotterdam this weekend.

Col

Ah yes, PA474’s visit to Holland was a hit! And not a single member of the “roundel police” in sight at Rotterdam Airport…
“Michael H” ‘s photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64649127@N00/sets/72157600149536547/ gives an impression of todays events at Rotterdam Airport. Even though local media hasn’t mentioned the fact that the “Lanc” is still in The Netherlands I expect a large audience will be watching her starting up her engines this Sunday afternoon.
Handing out/dropping over the seven-feet-fence numerous copies of this season’s booklet was also much appreciated by all the Dutch folk!

Thanks BBMF!

As the civilian project manager for the Lanc to date I’ve kept quiet on this and any forum. I’d like to firstly mention the Nose Art: I have for weeks kept the nose art under wraps on the instruction of the MOD. Anyone who has been allowed in to see the aircraft whilst its been under maintenance has been told that they may take pictures for personal use only and they were not to be published as BBMF were planning a big event at the end of April when they wished to “reveal” the new artwork. I would say 99.99% have followed that simple request and for all of those I thank you. Anyone who was on the pan last week for the air test knew the team who had been working on the aircraft – big badges “Lancaster Major Team” – and could have asked that now the nose art was on show could it be published. Again those of you who took photographs and were itching to publish I thank you for not doing so. I was at the event on Friday and although the pictures were by then in the public domain I dont think it detracted from it in any way. Well done all involved.
Regarding the paintwork, there are mistakes but as Fluffy mentioned we were using an original Avro publication that was none to clear and in many cases we used pictures taken from Micky the Moucher – if that was wrong then unfortunely we made the same mistakes. Fluffy informs me that the publication has now been cleaned up and is far more legible so who ever does it next may have more offical information than we had.
At this point I’d like to pass on my thanks to everyone invloved, from the team that worked on the aircraft putting in a huge amount of additional hours and sacrificed many weekends, the many sub-contractors involved who made their contribution to the project in good time, Col and the ground crew at Coningsby who supported us with every request that we made. Everyone pulled together to get the aircraft back to Coningsby with 36 hours to spare, good luck or good project management ?

Bruce

Bruce,
As an ex flight member, can i also say well done and thanks what the team have done, the bitch looks great.
As for the mistakes, the only people who will moan are the so called expert researchers / roundle police. I personally don’t give a toss for there coments all i say is, what exact scheme have they painted their Spitfire/Lancaster in.
I have a very close famiy tie to Lancasters in service both WWII and post. The only time they looked as stated in AM contract fom was just before they left Castle Brom, Chadderton, Woodford etc.
So ******em, well done again and thanks..

Yup, what Bex said.

Bruce,

Firstly, thank you for your teams hard work and dedication to the project. As for photos, I think that debate will just keep going on. Finally, Im not an expert on Lancaster artwork or paintwork, but in my inexperienced & dare I say it humble opinion, mistakes aside it still looks out of this world.

Thanks again
Bex

The Phantom

As the civilian project manager for the Lanc to date I’ve kept quiet on this and any forum. I’d like to firstly mention the Nose Art: I have for weeks kept the nose art under wraps on the instruction of the MOD. Anyone who has been allowed in to see the aircraft whilst its been under maintenance has been told that they may take pictures for personal use only and they were not to be published as BBMF were planning a big event at the end of April when they wished to “reveal” the new artwork. I would say 99.99% have followed that simple request and for all of those I thank you. Anyone who was on the pan last week for the air test knew the team who had been working on the aircraft – big badges “Lancaster Major Team” – and could have asked that now the nose art was on show could it be published. Again those of you who took photographs and were itching to publish I thank you for not doing so. I was at the event on Friday and although the pictures were by then in the public domain I dont think it detracted from it in any way. Well done all involved.
Regarding the paintwork, there are mistakes but as Fluffy mentioned we were using an original Avro publication that was none to clear and in many cases we used pictures taken from Micky the Moucher – if that was wrong then unfortunely we made the same mistakes. Fluffy informs me that the publication has now been cleaned up and is far more legible so who ever does it next may have more offical information than we had.
At this point I’d like to pass on my thanks to everyone invloved, from the team that worked on the aircraft putting in a huge amount of additional hours and sacrificed many weekends, the many sub-contractors involved who made their contribution to the project in good time, Col and the ground crew at Coningsby who supported us with every request that we made. Everyone pulled together to get the aircraft back to Coningsby with 36 hours to spare, good luck or good project management ?

Bruce

Someone asked me a question about the bomb missions markings & I didn’t have an answer for him:
Whats the difference betrween red & yellow bombs.. & what do the icecreams signify?

I thought the yellow was HE & the red was Incendiary? but I’m lost with the cornetos….:confused:

My post 26 in this thread, and from the BBMF website:

http://www.bbmf.co.uk/bomber.html

…Of those 33 operations, only 3 were aborted and when ‘Phantom’ left 100 Squadron in November 1943 she had 30 ‘Ops’ recorded in 2 rows on her side. Operational sorties were represented with yellow bombs while a red bomb signified a trip to the ‘Big City’ Berlin. Operations to Italy were recorded with an ice-cream cornet, an unofficial marking used by Bomber Command to signify a raid on Italian targets…

Ok, I’ll have a quick go at the four ‘mistakes’:
1) The aforementioned missing dinghy hatch marking

2) There’s no repeated code letter on the side of the nose

3) The camouflage pattern over the rear fuselage looks a tad non standard, the green areas look a little too close to eachother.

4) The City of Lincoln motif wasn’t there on the original

Anywhere close? Oh ok…:(

Your entry has been recorded. We will be in touch.

Overheard today at Coningsby. “Look it’s the Battle of Britain Lancaster – see it’s got B O B on the side.”

I was torn between a look of withering disdain or passing wind in their general direction. I leave my final decision to the reader’s discretion.

Well the was a few ladders against the fence today;) 😉

As I stated on the Goat, where they for the felines passing?????

The black GC flyingsuits and Marquees driving past BBMF gave the game away.

The Village Idiot will also be out (and there are a few around Boston parts as our guys have found out since being there!!!)

Saw myself in the Lanc slot on News 24…… blob standing by the eng building of Echo!!!!:dev2: :dev2:

Ok, I’ll have a quick go at the four ‘mistakes’:
1) The aforementioned missing dinghy hatch marking

2) There’s no repeated code letter on the side of the nose

3) The camouflage pattern over the rear fuselage looks a tad non standard, the green areas look a little too close to eachother.

4) The City of Lincoln motif wasn’t there on the original

Anywhere close? Oh ok…:(

Alright gloves off there are 4 mistakes a prize to the winner but you have to get all 4 to claim your prize.

A Ltd edition booklet entitled “The Flight at 50”

Get Al Pinner and Ron Clark to sign it then the magnifying glasses will be out.